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AN INQUIRY 



THE FORMATION 




WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 



And harmonize what seems amiss to flow 
As severed from the whole, 
And dimly understood.'' 




PHILADELPHIA: 

PAEEY & McMILLA^, publishers. 

1859. 



E31Z 






I 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, 

BY C. SHERMAN & SON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



C. SHERMAN & SON, PEINTEES, 
Corner of Serenth and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia. 



PREFACE. 



If the title of this paper had substituted the word Authorship 
for the word Formation, it would have contained the ambiguity 
which it is the object of the Inquiry to clear away. There are not 
many words in our language that describe a greater variety of ope- 
rations than the word Author. From the first step in production, 
even from the mandate to produce a work of any kind, to the perfect 
completion of the work, there are many relations to it, and at times 
several contributions to it, which may make more persons than one 
authors of it, in different senses, with equal justice and exclusiveness. 
And only something short of this is the word Authorship ; which, 
though it signifies the quality of being an author, and therefore 
may comprehend that quality in regard to any property of any sub- 
ject, yet seems to be generally confined to literary works or compo- 
sitions in writing, and to admit of nothing being truly predicated of 
it, except in this relation. The word Authorship is large enough, 
however, in this limited application, to include more than one per- 
son as possessing this quality in regard to the same thing ; and in 
the rather jealous domain of literature, if different persons have 
contributed to the same written composition, it sometimes happens 
that the application of the word in honor of one rather than another 
of them, is the occasion of very lively disputes, where there is per- 
haps little or no difference of opinion about the respective contribu- 
tions of the parties, or no previous analysis to ascertain what the 
respective contributions were. This word has therefore been care- 



IV PREFACE. 

fully excluded from the title, and will be as carefully avoided in 
the Inquiry, unless with some attendant definition or description, to 
show the sense in which it is used. Undoubtedly a written composi- 
tion may have been so much the mixed work of two persons, that 
the authorship of it in some sense may be justly attributed to both. 
Where the contributions are well discriminated, the respective au- 
thorships may be attributed to each. In which class the Farewell 
Address will fall, or whether it will fall into either, is reserved for 
the judgment of the reader, at the conclusion of the Inquiry. 

The writer's aim in this essay, has been certainty in the facts, 
and accuracy in his deductions from them. He has therefore scru- 
pulously endeavored to avoid embellishment in either of these 
respects, while he has been regardless of it in any other. He hopes 
that the result will give equal relief to the friends of Washington 
and to the friends of Hamilton, who for the most part were the 
same persons while the objects of their regard, were living, some 
appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. It cannot be denied 
that there have been since, as there were in the previous day, seve- 
ral appearances which have manifested greater favor to Washington 
and less to Hamilton, independently of the pre-eminent military and 
patriotic services of the former ; and that these appearances still 
continue, and have been much enlarged ; but perhaps with this dis- 
tinction, that Washington is praised more and followed less, while 
Hamilton is praised less, and, at least in the great mass of fiscal, com- 
mercial, and judicial principles and arrangements, which he recom- 
mended for the Treasury and for the country, is followed more. But 
the probability, nevertheless, is, that the friends of both, as supporters 
of the same policy, are still the same persons. Their number will 
increase, no doubt, from day to day, as these great men shall 
become more thoroughly known by their writings, and more impar- 
tially compared with others ; but it is to their friends only, present 
and to come, that the writer can promise himself to supply either 
facts or deductions in regard to the Farewell Address, that will be 
of any considerable interest. 



PREFACE. V 

The manner in which Alexander- Hamilton's connection with the 
Farewell Address of Washington has been occasionally written and 
spoken about, has been a source of discomfort to many persons who 
have a great admiration for that remarkable man ; and perhaps of 
as much discomfort from the bearing of these remarks upon Wash- 
ington, as from their bearing upon Hamilton. To all persons who 
possess, in the same degree with the writer of this paper, a profound 
veneration for the whole character of the Father of his Country, 
and at the same time an exalted respect for the intellectual and per- 
sonal qualities of Hamilton, it must have been for years past a 
cause of disturbance, to perceive that by some persons the composi- 
tion of the Address has been regarded either as an unsupported pre- 
tension on the side of Hamilton, or as an assistance which he should 
have taken effectual means to conceal forever ; and by others, as a 
transcript by Washington, with a view to unneedful honor, of what 
another had written, fundamental or guiding thoughts, and all. 

That Washington, like other executive chiefs, or heads of mili- 
tary command, consulted his ministers, officers, and friends, and was 
sometimes obliged to use their pens for the expression or the arrange- 
ment of his thoughts, is not only probable but certain. He left 
behind him some traces of this wise practice, and it was more than 
once avowed by him ; but that he had done this at any time and 
under any circumstances, with such an appeal, either expressed or 
understood, as would reflect upon his minister or friend if he left a 
trace of his contributions among his papers, or that in the instance 
of this great paper he had cloaked the service so carefully as to 
imply a corresponding duty on the other side to do the same, for the 
purpose of leaving the honors of the entire written composition 
with him, is a thought that cannot be recalled without the greatest 
repugnance, from both its aspects. In this last case, the character 
of each party was a guarantee that whatever was asked or done 
was properly asked and done ; that there was no vain-glory on 
either side, no sense of humiliation or superiority, no aspiration 
for the honors of authorship at the expense of either truth or loy- 



VI PREFACE. 

alty, but just such a contribution on each side, if there were two 
contributing parties, as would leave to the principal party the merit 
and the responsibility of the fundamental thoughts, and to the other 
the merit of expanding, defending, and presenting them in the most 
suitable form, a task which public engagements, or a particular turn 
of mind, may have made unusual to the one, while it was habitual 
and easy to the other ; and that no sense of honor had been wounded, 
nor any pretension of vanity consulted, by leaving the traces of a 
joint co-operation, just as each party has left them. Such as the 
character of both Washington and Hamilton gave assurance that 
the co-operation, if it took place, would be, such upon very full 
examination of the facts, it turns out to have been. The reader 
will probably regard the character of each, after he has considered 
the proofs, with as much esteem and admiration as he felt before the 
fact of co-operation was known to him. It is not improbable that 
he will regard it with even greater. 

A recent perusal of the correspondence between Washington and 
Hamilton, in regard to the Farewell Address, has led to the prepa- 
ration of this paper. Part of that correspondence, the letters of 
Washington, has been in print for some years, and is to be found in 
the Congress edition of Hamilton's works. The letters of Hamilton 
to Washington have not been heretofore printed. The writer did not 
keep a copy of any of them. The originals were found among the 
papers of Washington, at the time of his death, and copies of them 
have been supplied by Mr. Sparks, the Editor of Washington's writ- 
ings, and the author of his biography, to Mr. John C. Hamilton, the 
author of Hamilton's Life, and of "The History of the Republic," 
now in course of publication, who has given me permission to print 
them. I am indebted to the same gentleman for permission to print 
certain other papers, derived by him from the kindness of Mr. 
Sparks, which enable me to identify the original or preparatory 
draught by Washington of a Farewell Address, as the same which 
he sent to Hamilton on the 15th May, 1796, and which became the 
basis of Hamilton's work. The permission of Mr. Hamilton enables 



PREFACE. Vll 

me to place a copy of this preparatory paper in an appendix. The 
originals of Hamilton's letters to Washington, and Washington's 
original draught, were, I understand, deposited in the office of the 
Department of State, after the conclusion of Mr. Sparks's great 
work ; but Mr. Hamilton informs me, that by order of Mr. Marcy, 
when Secretary of State, diligent search was made, at Mr. Hamil- 
ton's request, and these letters and draught were not found. 

For the greater convenience of the reader, I have appended to this 
Essay, 1. A copy of Washington's original or preparatory draught 
of a Farewell Address ; 2. A copy of Hamilton's " Abstract of 
Points to form an Address." 3. A copy of Hamilton's original 
draught of an Address ; 4. Washington's Farewell Address, conform- 
ing to the record of it in the Department of State; and 5. A copy 
of Washington's autograph paper, from which the Farewell Address 
was printed. I should not have felt at liberty to use for this pur- 
pose the reprint of that autograph paper in the appendix to the fifth 
volume of Mr. Irving' s Life of Washington ; but I have been favored, 
through Mr. Hamilton, with a permission to reprint it, by its pro- 
prietor, Mr. Lenox, who printed a very fine edition of it for private 
distribution. The pagings in Mr. Irving's appendix, are noted in 
this reprint, to facilitate a reader in tracing my references to that 
appendix. 

HORACE BINNEY. 

Philadelphia, August 9, 1859. 



AN INQUIRY, ETC. 



From the first publication of Washington's Farewell 
Address, in September, 1796, it has never been universally 
agreed, that the paper was written altogether by the illus- 
trious man whose name is subscribed to it. 

The first intimations of doubt on this point, were confined 
to private conversation or society, and with the admission 
that the paper spoke Washington's well-known sentiments, 
and was not above the high intellectual capacity he had 
uniformly exhibited ; but the doubt was excused by sugges- 
tions, that the paper wanted the presence of Washington's 
characteristic forms of expression and construction, and that 
it manifested more systematic arrangement and connection, 
with fuller argumental supports, than were usual in his 
writings. 

This language was confined, also, to comparatively few 
persons, as only a few were, at that time, familiar with 
Washington's writings. But in subsequent years, as this 
familiarity was enlarged, and as rival or unfriendly sentiments 
towards Washington and some of his confidential friends, 
were more disposed to reveal themselves, the doubts grew 
stronger; and, as special facts bearing upon the question 



10 EARLY AND LATER OPINIONS 

came out from time to time, they became more general. 
At length there arose a popular repugnance to the opinion, 
which in some degree suppressed further curiosity and 
inquiry. The deep and undivided reverence of the people 
for Washington, was unwilling to learn, that, even on an 
occasion of ceremony, he had worn any vesture but his own. 
It was, perhaps, a prejudice ; but it was a natural one, in 
such a country as ours was, and some of it may still remain. 
The lapse of more years, however, and the express mention 
of Alexander Hamilton's name as an assistant in the work, 
opened the inquiry again, — always in the most deferential 
manner towards Washington, but with new features, tend- 
ing to diversify opinions upon the matter, and in a certain 
degree to embitter them; until finally three varieties of 
opinion were found to prevail, none of them strictly ac- 
cordant with the absolute truth, yet all of them professing 
the most elevated respect for Washington. They probably 
divide the country at the present time. It has been a re- 
markable test of the universal admiration and love of 
Washington among us, that no one of these opinions has 
ever disclosed or involved the least abatement in the love of 
any of his countrymen towards this immortal man, whose 
priority in all hearts has become the established heritage of 
his name forever. 

One of these varieties of opinion, existing perhaps as 
early as any, among persons in immediate proximity to 
Washington, but not then revealed to any extent, and 
which had no special basis of fact whatever for it, was, that 
the Farewell Address was a transcript by Washington of 
Hamilton's thoughts as well as language. Those who en- 
tertained this opinion, derived it, probably, from what they 



OF THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE ADDRESS. 11 

erroneously thought was Washington's frequent practice in 
his public writings.* 

Another variety, with more, but still incomplete, know- 
ledge of the facts to sustain it, and with a natural partiality 
to incline it to assign the largest contribution of every 
ingredient to Washington, though without undervaluing 
either the talents or the direct contributions of Hamilton, 
regarded the Address as the joint work of both, but the 
preponderant work of Washington in all respects — Wash- 
ington's style in its language, as much as his judgment in 
the plan, or his sentiments in the principles. It conceded 
to Hamilton a considerable share, but left the contributing 
shares of each of the parties perfectly indefinite. 

The third variety of opinion was that of a very eminent 
and excellent man, from whom it passed to others, with a 
result as erroneous as the opinion first noticed, and more 
erroneous than the second, being at the same time more 
definite in the wrong direction.f 

This eminent man, perfectly acquainted with one impor- 
tant fact in the case, bearing upon Hamilton's connection 
with the Address, and entirely unacquainted with all the 
rest, reasoned from this fact as if it had been the only fact 
in the case, and closely restricted the bearing of it, by an 
opinion of his own, which certainly was not Washington's, 
that the Farewell Address was in some emphatic way, " a 
"personal act — of choice, not of official duty — and was so 



* This thought may be seen in a remarkable letter by the elder President Adams, to 
Dr. Benjamin Rush, dated 28th August, 1811. "Works of John Adams," vol. ix, p. 639. 

f John Jay. Letter to the Hon. Richard Peters, 29th March, 1811. Life and 
Writings of John Jay, vol. ii, p. 33G. 



12 MR. jay's abstract opinion. 

" connected with other obvious considerations, that he 
" (Washington) only, could with propriety write it." 

This positive and explicit opinion, which resulted in the 
conclusion, not directly expressed, but necessarily implied 
by the whole letter from which the above extract is taken, 
that Washington was the only writer of the Farewell Ad- 
dress, and Hamilton no more than the corrector or emen- 
dator of Washington's original draught, has had decisive 
weight with a great many persons ; and from the character 
of the writer, and the solemnity with which he expressed 
his opinion, and gave the details of his personal knowledge, 
could not but have such weight. It inclined the scale, 
before the opposing evidence could be fairly weighed against 
it ; and it will incline it, until that evidence is exhibited and 
deliberately weighed. 

From the time that this letter was published, in 1833, 
and, in only a less extensive degree, from the time of its 
date, in 1811, the question assumed an invidious bearing 
towards Alexander Hamilton, and on the other hand, towards 
the principal party also ; and has at length become almost a 
moral question, involving a breach of faith or honor on 
Hamilton's part, and of some assumption of another's merit 
on the part of Washington, without the countenance of any 
other circumstance in their respective lives to justify or 
excuse an imputation of this nature. 

In a certain state of opinion respecting the authorship of 
the Farewell Address, it would have been agreeable to concur 
in a part of Mr. Sparks's remarks on this subject, in the 
twelfth volume of Washington's Writings, of which he was 
the editor ; " that the manner in which that Address origi- 
" nated is one of small moment, since its real importance 



MR. SPARKS'S OPINION. 13 

" consists in its being known to contain the sentiments of 
" Washington, uttered on a solemn occasion, and designed 
"for the benefit of his countrymen." There is no reason 
to question the propriety of this remark ; nor would there 
be any indisposition to stop there, if Mr. Sparks and others 
had stopped there. But Mr. Sparks has proceeded in the 
same place to examine the question of origin to some extent, 
and has expressed his opinions upon the whole subject, 
generally with candor, and always with a fair estimate of 
Hamilton's intellectual powers, and of his special aid in the 
preparation of this Address; but without making all the 
discriminations which the evidence supports, and with rather 
a measurable valuation of the Address itself as a literary com- 
position, so as to leave the merits of it on a less elevated grade 
than they ought to occupy, and the relative contributions of 
both Washington and Hamilton to the work, in greater ob- 
scurity than, now at least, there is any necessity for. Mr. 
Sparks also has explained, or excused, this obscurity, by an 
implication that in some degree tarnishes the honor of 
Hamilton ; for, as Hamilton did preserve, that is to say, did 
not destroy, the original draught of the address he had pre- 
pared for Washington, and did likewise preserve the original 
letters of Washington upon that subject, as well as upon 
others, it is certainly a tacit reflection upon Hamilton's 
honor, for having done this, to say, " that in a case of so 
" confidential a nature, and in which his honor was so much 
" concerned, it may be supposed that Hamilton would not 
" preserve every communication that he received." All this 
on the part of Mr. Sparks has been, perhaps inadvertently 
and unconsciously, colored or promoted, by reflections from 
another paper previously published, to which he refers, the 



14 UNEASY STATE OF THE QUESTION. 

letter of Mr. Jay to Judge Peters ; which ought to have had 
no such effect, and can have none at all at this day, when 
the facts are more accurately known. It is not reasonable, 
therefore, in this state of Mr. Sparks's impressions, to abide 
by the general proposition he seems to espouse, though it is 
not very clearly stated, that Washington himself was the 
composer or writer of the paper, though with important 
assistance from Hamilton. It might have been left there, 
but for this reflection upon Hamilton's name ; for the ques- 
tion is really of no moral importance, however interesting it 
may be as a matter of historical or literary curiosity; and 
Hamilton's reputation as a writer and thinker, on questions of 
public policy, requires nothing to be added to it, and can 
gain nothing by a decision on this point in his favor, which 
it may not very safely do without. But those who honor 
Hamilton's patriotism and pure integrity, and his elevated 
character in all respects, cannot be contented to let any 
obscurity rest upon the point, which there is light enough 
in the evidence to remove ; especially under an hypothesis, 
that Hamilton, from motives of honor, did not preserve, that 
is to say, did destroy, papers which would have made the 
point clear, while at the same time he did not destroy; that 
is to say, did preserve, the principal paper by which his 
claims, whatever they may be, are to be determined. This 
is an imeasy state of the question to many persons. It 
is quite possible that Mr. Sparks did not perceive the 
full bearing of his remark; and it is possible, also, 
that the friends of Hamilton have seen more point in 
the remark than Mr. Sparks intended to give it. But 
it has by this, and like causes, become a duty, both 
to Hamilton and Washington, to go over the whole matter 



THE WRITER'S GENERAL COURSE IN REGARD TO IT. 15 

upon original grounds, which is the direct object of this 
Inquiry. 

It need not be said — for this will become obvious by the 
whole cast of these remarks — that my reverence for Wash- 
ington, my admiration of him, my interest in his true glory, 
even in his honor in all that regards the Farewell Address, 
are not, and never have been, inferior to those of any person 
I have known; and at the same time, that none of these 
sentiments impair those I have always entertained in the 
like respects for Hamilton. It will only be necessary for 
me to follow the greater interests of truth, to show my per- 
sonal admiration of both, and to do justice to each in the 
matter of this celebrated paper. 

I shall endeavor to make these statements as plain and 
clear as possible ; abating none of their plainness and clear- 
ness by a vain effort for literary effect. This may, perhaps, 
take more space than may be agreeable to all; but those 
who have an interest in the question, will not be unwil- 
ling, perhaps, to give the necessary time and attention to 
it, if they shall perceive that the examination is conducted 
in a calm and impartial spirit, with an orderly arrangement 
and an ample citation of proofs, a careful deduction of infer- 
ences, and a full concentration of all these influences upon 
the published Farewell Address of Washington. 

I shall be under a necessity, in order to avoid a heavy 
mass of quotations, of asking the reader to refer to the 
printed and published works I shall name, if he desires 
more full information than my extracts will give him, or 
wishes to test my accuracy in making them ; and when I 
shall offer a comparison between the original draught of an 
address by Hamilton, and the Farewell Address signed and 



16 Washington's purpose, not to be the only 

dated by Washington, on the 17th September, 1796, and 
published by him to the country, I shall ask the reader to 
make, with the exception of two or three clauses collated in 
the Inquiry, the entire collation or comparison himself, 
with the two papers under his eye, to save me from exhibit- 
ing, what some persons might deem an invidious parallel, if 
they were placed side by side, in opposite columns or pages. 

It seems worthy of particular remark at the outset, that 
Washington does not appear to have intended, at any time, 
to be the unassisted composer or writer of the Farewell 
Address. Though it was not, strictly speaking, an official 
paper, nor a state paper, appertaining to the regular duties 
of his political office, and for which he might, and usually 
did, refer to his official ministers and advisers, and some- 
times to approved friends, for thoughts and clauses, that he 
might consider and apply, or modify or reject, at his plea- 
sure, — it was a paper, in his regard, of a higher grade, and 
calling for even more consideration, as it was to be in the 
nature of a testamentary declaration of his political prin- 
ciples, as well as to impart his counsels, and to express his 
personal thanks and valediction to the whole people of the 
United States. 

The original conception, the fundamental thought, pur- 
pose, or design of this paper, was Washington's ; his first, 
and it would seem his only, upon separate consideration 
and deliberation, until the purpose was matured, when he 
communicated it to another, who approved it. That design 
comprehended, in addition to his cordial and thankful fare- 
well, upon retiring from civil life, a recommendation of 
various patriotic counsels and admonitions to his country- 
men, which should bring before them the blessings of their 



17 



union under a federal government, the perfect adaptation of 
their diversified soil and climate to such a union, the advan- 
tages of their mutual dependence and intercommunity, their 
common relation to foreign nations, and the dangers of either 
local or foreign partialities and antipathies, and of party 
spirit in all its shapes, whether of combinations to control or 
obstruct the action of regular authority, or of pervading 
jealousy to weaken its effects, or of virulent opposition and 
censure, to discourage and drive from public office the 
faithful servants who had been selected to administer it. 
In a word, the advantages and the dangers of the whole 
country, and the maintenance of the Union, under a wise 
and equal administration, as the best security and defence 
of the public happiness, were to be his theme ; and no man 
ever suggested a nobler theme, or was more worthy by his 
patriotism, or so well entitled by his services, to make it the 
subject of his final discourse and instruction. It was a 
paper far above all ordinary official or state papers, was re- 
lated to topics as high or higher, involving equal or greater 
responsibility, addressed to greater numbers, and asking a 
perpetual remembrance by the people, as they should tender 
their political existence. 

That Washington ought to have thought that such an 
address was so personal, or " so connected with other obvious 
" considerations," that he only " could with propriety write 
"it," is a pure fancy, if we take in the whole of Wash- 
ington's thought. Instead of such considerations being 
" obvious," they are not even discoverable. No satisfactory 
reason can be given for the proposition, that would not have 
made it his duty to write everything that purported to 
express his personal sentiments, whether official or unoffi- 



/ 



18 Washington's letter to madison. 

cial — his speeches to Congress, and everything emanating 
from his public position. No reason of any kind was given 
for it by Mr. Jay, in the place where it was first announced. 
Upon the same hypothesis, whatever it may have been, he 
ought not to have asked for thoughts, or revision and cor- 
rection for his own draught of this paper, or for any assist- 
ance whatever, which was the very thing that was asked of 
him who has made the criticism ; and this would bring the 
Address to a schoolboy exercise, that was to try Washing- 
ton's progress in composition, and to bring dishonor upon 
him, if he borrowed a feather, or a feather's weight, from 
anybody else. 

It is sufficient, however, to know that this thought was 
not Washington's thought, upon this or any other occasion 
of public concern. He thought the contrary, clearly and 
constantly, in regard to the Farewell Address. He thought 
it a year or more before the end of his first term of office as 
President ; and he thought it till the matter was consum- 
mated, about six months before the end of his last term. 
By a letter dated the 20th May, 1792, he first opened the 
subject freely to Mr. Madison. 

His letter, and Mr. Madison's reply, and the draught of a 
Farewell Address prepared by Madison, at Washington's 
request, appear in the twelfth volume of " The Writings of 
George Washington," edited by Jared Sparks, in pages 382 
to 390. I will present a summary of Washington's letter, 
and some extracts from it, in this place. 

After saying that he was unable to dispose his mind to a 
longer continuation in the office he held, and that he looked 
forward with the fondest and most ardent wishes to spend 
the remainder of his days, which he could not expect to be 



Washington's letter to madison. 19 

long, in ease and tranquillity, — and saying further, that 
nothing, but a conviction that by declining the chair of 
government, it would involve the country in serious disputes 
respecting the Chief Magistrate, could induce him to relin- 
quish the determination he had formed, Washington pro- 
ceeded to say as follows : — 

" Under these impressions, then, permit me to reiterate the 
" request I made to you at our last meeting, namely, to think of 
" the proper time and best mode of announcing the intention ; and 
"that you would prepare the latter." . . . " I would fain carry my 
" request to you farther than is asked above, although I am sensible 
" that your compliance with it must add to your trouble ; but as 
u the recess may afford you leisure, and I flatter myself you have 
" dispositions to oblige me, I will, without apology, desire (if the 
"measure in itself should strike you as proper, or likely to produce 
" public good, or private honor) that you would turn your thoughts 
"to a valedictory address from me to the public, expressing, in 
" plain and modest terms, that, having been honored with the Presi- 
" dential chair, and to the best of my abilities contributed to the 
" organization and administration of the government — that having 
" arrived at a period of life when the private walks of it, in the 
" shades of retirement, become necessary, and will be most pleasing 
"to me ; — (and as the spirit of the government may render a rota- 
" tion in the elective officers of it more congenial with the ideas [the 
" people have] of liberty and safety*) — that I take my leave of them 

* I possess afac simile of Washington's letter of 20th May, 1 792, to Mr. Madison, to 
which, in this place, the copy in Mr. Sparks's Appendix does not literally conform. I 
do not vouch for this fac simile, though the resemblance to Washington's handwriting, 
which is familiar to me, is perfect ; and the copy in Mr. Sparks's Appendix, in other 
respects, conforms to it. The clause, in the fac simile to which I refer, is as follows, 
without marks of parenthesis, but beginning where the first mark of parenthesis in Mr. 
Sparks's copy, which I follow, begins, after the words " pleasing to me ;" — li and the spirit 
" of the government may render a rotation in the elective officers of it more congenial with 



20 Washington's letter to madison. 

"as a public man, and, in bidding them adieu, retaining no other 
' ' concern than such as will arise from fervent wishes for the pros- 
" perity of my country, I take the liberty of my departure from 
" civil [life], as I formerly did at my military exit, to invoke a 
" continuation of the blessings of Providence upon it, and upon all 
"those who are the supporters of its interests, and the promoters 
" of harmony, order, and good government." . . . " That, to im- 
" press these things, it might, among other topics, be observed" — 

and then the letter proceeds to state, and very briefly de- 
velope, four topics, which, with very little variation of 
Washington's words, may, in his own order, be represented 
as follows: 1. That we are all children of the same country, 
great and rich in itself, and capable and promising to be as 
prosperous and happy as any which the annals of history have 
brought to view ; and that our interest, however diversified 
in local or smaller matters, is the same in all the great and 
essential concerns of the nation. 2. That the extent of our 
country, the diversity of our climate and soil, and the various 
productions of the States, are such as to make one part not only 
convenient, but indispensable to other parts, and may render 
the whole one of the most independent nations in the world. 
3. That the government, being the work of our hands, with 
the seeds of amendment engrafted in the Constitution, may, 
by wisdom, good dispositions, and mutual allowances, aided 



u their ideas of liberty and safety, that I take my leave of them as a public man,*' &c. 
I have heard, and have no reason to doubt, that the fac simile was made from the ori- 
ginal letter, which came from a member of Mr. Madison's family, after Mr. Madison's 
death. The word [life J within brackets is subject to my preceding remark ; it is not 
inthe/«c simile. Indeed, this manner of bracketing words in a copy, is understood, 1 
believe, to be an intimation that the original does not contain the bracketed word or 
words. 



WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO MADISON. 21 

by experience, be brought as near to perfection as any 
human institution has ever been; and, therefore, that the 
only strife should be, who should be foremost in facilitating, 
and finally accomplishing, such great objects, by giving every 
possible support and cement to the Union. 4. And here 
Washington's full words are extracted : " that however 
" necessary it may be to keep a watchful eye over public 
" servants and public measures, yet there ought to be limits 
" to it ; for suspicions unfounded, and jealousies too lively, 
" are irritating to honest feelings, and oftentimes are pro- 
" ductive of more evil than good." 

Then coming more generally to the office Madison was 
asked to perform, the letter says : — 

" To enumerate the various subjects which might be introduced 
" into such an address, would require thought, and to mention them 
" to you would be unnecessary, as your own judgment will compre- 
" hend all that will be proper. Whether to touch specifically any 
" of the exceptionable parts of the Constitution, may be doubted. 
a All that I shall add, therefore, at present, is, to beg the favor of 
"you to consider, first, the propriety of such an address ; secondly, 
" if approved, the several matters which ought to be contained in 
"it; thirdly, the time it should appear, that is, whether at the 
" declaration of my intention to withdraw from the service of the 
" public, or to let it be the closing act of my administration, which 
"will end with the next session of Congress." 

There is one more clause in the letter, the final clause, a 
part of which will be adverted to presently ; but, by what is 
already shown, it is manifest that Washington asked Madi- 
son both to write for him and to think for him in this 
behalf; and that he guided Madison in regard only to cer- 



09 



WASHINGTON S LETTER TO MADISON. 



tain topics, leaving to him an unlimited range as to others, 
subject, of course, to his own revision and judgment, in 
which he appears, at all times, to have possessed the fullest 
confidence, whether in deciding upon his own capacity and 
language, or upon the capacity and language of another. 
And it is made further manifest, that, so far from regarding 
the Address as a merely personal paper, it was to be, in 
one contingency of time, what Washington called " the 
" closing act of his administration ;" thus bringing it at 
once into the category of public and official papers. 

This, however, is not all that is made plain by the letter, 
as plain by what it does not say, as by what it does. Cer- 
tainly, it was a letter that showed confidence and trust, and 
so it must have been understood by the parties ; and it de- 
manded reserve and silence at the time on the part of Madi- 
son, from the uncertainty whether Washington would retire, 
as he wished to do, and from the consequences that would have 
resulted from bruiting his purpose prematurely to the world. 
This motive for silence and reserve continued to the time of 
Washington's final determination, in the beginning of 1796, 
and even later than that, as will hereafter be seen. But 
there is not a word about secrecy in the letter. It is not 
headed " confidential," nor described as confidential, to re- 
strict the knowledge of it to the parties only ; and the last 
clause of the letter proves, that in Washington's mind, the 
confidence, as to the Farewell Address, stood upon the same 
footing as if the subject had been the President's speech at 
the opening of Congress ; for in precisely the same condition 
of confidence as in the matter of the Farewell Address, 
Washington adverted to the approaching session of Con- 
gress, and said : — 



NO SPECIAL IMPLICATION OF SECRECY. 23 

" I beg leave to draw your attention, also, to such things as you 
" shall conceive fit subjects for communication on that occasion; 
" and, noting them as they occur, that you would be so good as to 
" provide me with them in time to be prepared and engrafted with 
"the others for the opening of the session." 

Since the death of both Washington and Hamilton, a 
notion of some special honorary secrecy and confidence, in 
this reference for advice and assistance in the matter of the 
Farewell Address, has been blended with the consideration 
of the whole subject, and has led to both misconceptions 
and misrepresentations. If the thought is analyzed with 
any care, it will be found to contain, if I may follow Mr. 
Jefferson's authority for a word, that sort of belittling appeal 
to honor, which one lady of fashion makes to another, 
when she borrows her diamonds to show off in. There is 
no trace or implication of the feeling in this first letter to 
Mr. Madison; and those who have suggested it, in some 
disparagement of Hamilton, do not appear to have con- 
sidered how equally it casts back upon the party by 
whom the appeal was made, if it was made or intended. 
A motive for the honorary secrecy must be imputed to 
Washington, before the preservation of papers which reveal 
its object, can be imputed to Madison or to Hamilton. If 
the preservation of such papers involves Madison or Hamil- 
ton in the indelicacy of violating secrecy for his own advan- 
tage, against the understanding and wish of Washington, 
that understanding and wish must involve Washington in 
the vanity of desiring to pass as the unassisted author of 
every part of the Address. There is not a circumstance in 
the life of either Washington or Hamilton, that justifies the 
one imputation or the other ; and a body of proofs will be 



24 mr. madison's draught. 

hereafter submitted,, which, if any thing can prove a negative, 
will prove that the purpose and thought, in the particular 
case, were equally absent from both. 

It is unnecessary to say much, in this place, about Mr. 
Madison's draught of a Farewell Address. It is printed at 
length in Mr. Sparks's edition of Washington's Writings. 
It is a rather curt paper, not occupying in the whole three 
full pages of Mr. Sparks's Appendix, even with an alternative 
clause, which was to be omitted, if the notification of Wash- 
ington's purpose to retire, and the expression of his counsels 
and cautions, should make but one paper. It is not unrea- 
sonable to suppose that Mr. Madison, at that time, may have 
known himself to be drawn further away from the policy of 
Washington, than Washington was aware of. His feelings 
of delicacy in the transaction may have been heightened by 
the circumstance. The fact is historically true ; and Madi- 
son's draught foreshadowed the proof of it. Madison confined 
himself, in his draught, mainly to a repetition of Washington's 
suggestions, developing them to a very moderate extent 
only, and not using at all the power delegated to him, to 
comprehend other topics. He aimed, as his reply to Wash- 
ington imports, at that plainness and modesty of language 
which. Washington had in view, to the extent, as Washing- 
ton's copy of this paper in his own original draught, will 
show, of making him speak of his own " very fallible jiulg- 
" went," of which Washington had not spoken in his letter, 
and of his "inferior qualifications for tJie trust" — a dis- 
claimer of what the unprejudiced part of the world knew 
him to possess in a remarkable degree ; and did little more, 
and says himself that he " had little more to do, as to the 
" matter, than to follow the just and comprehensive outline 



mr. madison's draught. 25 

" which Washington had sketched." In one particular, and it 
was an awakening one, Mr. Madison fell short of even this. 

It may be observed, that Washington's language, in the 
fourth of the topics expressly suggested by him to Madison, 
is very explicit. In that paragraph the principle assumed 
is, that, " however necessary it may be to keep a watchful 
" eye over public servants and public measures," — and 
Washington affirms nothing in regard to this necessity, — 
he does affirm distinctly, that " there ought to be limits to 
"it ; for unfounded suspicions and jealousies too lively, are 
" irritating to honest feelings, and oftentimes are more pro- 
" ductive of evil than good." 

Every one knows that Washington had been stung and 
irritated by the party arrows that were shot at him person- 
ally, as well as at certain members of his administration; 
but the breadth and depth of this irritation, and the direc- 
tion in which it spread, are not so well known. Some of 
his papers reveal it with little disguise. He therefore 
meant to assert, in the paragraph referred to, that a liberal 
confidence in public servants was, in such a government as 
ours, the true principle, and a watchful eye only a qualifica- 
tion of that principle. Madison's draught, on the contrary, 
places among the vows which Washington would carry to 
his retirement and to his grave, " that its administration, in 
" every department, may be stamped with wisdom and virtue, 
" and that this character may be insured to it, by that watch- 
" fulness which, on one hand, will be necessary to prevent or 
" correct a degeneracy, and that forbearance, on the other, 
"from unfounded or indiscriminate jealousies, which would 
"deprive the public of the best services, by depriving a 
" conscious integrity of the noblest incitements to perforin 
" them." 



2G MR. MADISON'S DRAUGHT. 

This seems to have been rather an inversion of Wash- 
ington's meaning, than even a dilution of it ; for by posi- 
tion, as well as by force of the terms, it affirms watch- 
fulness to be the principle, and forbearance the qualification. 
Though Washington may have observed this, he retained 
this form of statement, in so much of the paper he after- 
wards prepared as was taken from Madison's draught, re- 
stating, however, in the initial and final paragraphs of his 
own section of that paper, the vital part of the same senti- 
ment, which he had thus emphasized in his letter to Madi- 
son. Hamilton certainly observed it, and Washington 
finally held to a less questionable expression of his views, 
as will be seen hereafter; and it will also be seen that 
Hamilton brings forward in his original draught, modified by 
himself or Washington afterwards, the substance of Wash- 
ington's principle, and philosophically supports it by a dis- 
tinction between " governments of a monarchical character 
" or bias," and governments of a merely elective and popular 
kind. 

The proposition of Washington, in his letter to Madison, 
might be regarded as true in the abstract, supposing a 
democracy to possess virtue, the " one spring more," which 
Montesquieu thinks is necessary to it. But the past expe- 
rience of our own institutions, compels us to regard it prac- 
tically as Utopian. If it was not applied in our first and 
purest administration of government, it is not likely to be 
applied in any. Mr. Madison must have known, from the 
res gestce of times then shortly past and passing before him, 
that he could not safely commit himself, even as a represen- 
tative pen, to the plain enunciation of Washington's prin- 
ciple. Hamilton also, perhaps, saw that it was impracticable ; 



THE AUTHORITIES CITED IN THIS INQUIRY. 27 

but he knew it to be Washington's pure and noble thought, 
and therefore clothed it in the safest terms in his draught of 
an Address. 

As Washington surrendered his wish to retire at the end 
of his first term of office, the use of Madison's draught was 
postponed, until the subject recurred, in the course of 
Washington's second term, when his determination to retire 
became absolute, and he proceeded to the preparation of 
another Farewell Address. 

The purpose of this Inquiry calls for some precision in 
the reference to proofs or authorities, to show the course of 
Washington in this second preparation. All of these proofs 
have been for several years before the public, in authentic 
printed volumes, with the exception of Hamilton's replies 
to Washington's letters, and parts of Washington's original 
or preparatory draught. The case might have been better 
understood than it seems to have been, even without the 
publication of these excepted parts ; but, as there appears to 
be now but a single link of the chain wanting, and that not 
an indispensable one, namely, the copy of Hamilton's ori- 
ginal draught which he sent to Washington, amending con- 
siderably the original draught, which he retained, and is now 
printed in his works, it may assist the reader to have before 
him, in one view, a statement of all the proofs I shall have 
occasion to refer to in the course of this Inquiry. They are 
as follows : — 

1. The Appendix to the twelfth volume of Mr. Sparks's 
" Writings of George Washington," No. Ill ; " Washing- 
ton's Farewell Address," pages 382 to 398, inclusive. This 
paper contains copies of the letters between Washington 
and Madison, on the subject of the Address — a copy of 



28 the writer's authorities. 

Madison's draught — and two portions of Washington's pre- 
paratory draught, made before he consulted Hamilton. These 
portions consisted, 1st, of Madison's draught, and, 2d, of an 
original paper by Washington, bearing in Mr. Sparks's Ap- 
pendix the title or heading of Hints or Heads of Topics. 

2. The letters from Washington to Hamilton, on the sub- 
ject of the Farewell Address, the originals of which are now 
in the Department of State, and the printed copies are to 
be found in the sixth volume of " The Works of Alexander 
" Hamilton, comprising his Correspondence, and his Political 
" and Official Writings, exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and 
" Military, published from the Original Manuscripts in the 
"Department of State, by Order of the Joint Library Com- 
" mittee of Congress. Edited by John C Hamilton, author of 
" a Life of Hamilton" The letters in that work are printed 
in the order of date, and the date of the particular letter 
referred to in this Inquiry, will be a guide to the volume 
and place where it may be found. 

3. Hamilton's letters to Washington on the same subject. 
An extract from the first of these in point of date (10th 
May, 1796), is printed in the Appendix to the twelfth 
volume of Washington's Writings, page 391, in the paper 
of Mr. Sparks, headed " Washington's Farewell Address." 
The originals of all the other letters of Hamilton on this 
subject, as well as the first, were at one time in the posses- 
sion of Mr. Sparks ; and copies of them, supplied by him 
as I understand, are now in my possession. They will be 
either copied at large, or quoted in every material part, if 
the letter refers to other matters. The originals, it is un- 
derstood, were finally deposited in the Department of State. 
Whether they are all now there, is, I understand, uncer- 
tain. 



AUTHORITIES OF THE INQUIRY. 29 

4. Washington's original draught of an Address, sent by 
him to Hamilton, on the 15th May, 1796, for the purposes 
described in Washington's letter of that date. I give this 
title to a paper left by Washington at his death, and which 
subsequently was in Mr. Sparks's possession, for the pur- 
poses of his edition of Washington's Writings. Mr. Sparks 
has supplied a copy of the beginning and conclusion of this 
paper to Mr. Hamilton, the author of Hamilton's life, by 
whose permission I use them. The two middle parts are 
printed in Mr. Sparks's Appendix. One of them is Madi- 
son's draught ; the other is the paper entitled " Hints or Heads 
" of Topics." Together they constitute the entire draught, 
as it appears in the Appendix to this Inquiry. The lines 
which Washington altered, by drawing a line through them, 
though perfectly legible in the paper, are not material, and 
are supplied by asterisks. The words he interlined, to con- 
nect what is disjoined by the erasure, are printed in italics 
on the body of the page in the Appendix. 

5. Hamilton's " Abstract of points to form an Address ;" 
printed in Hamilton's Works, vol. vii, p. 570. 

6. Hamilton's original draught of the Farewell Address ; 
printed in the same volume, page 575. 

7. Mr. Jay's letter to Judge Peters, dated 29th March, 
1811 ; in the second volume of the Life of John Jay, by his 
son William Jay, at page 336. 

8. The Farewell Address to the People of the United 
States, by Washington, dated 17th September, 1796; in the 
twelfth volume of Washington's Writings, edited by Jared 
Sparks, at page 214. 

9. The reprint of the autograph copy of Washington's 
Farewell Address, with certain clauses and words which had 



30 Washington's preparation of a draught. 

been cancelled in the autograph copy, now restored and 
printed at the foot of the respective pages. 

These are all the authorities which are necessary to de- 
termine the respective contributions of Washington and 
Hamilton to the Farewell Address ; and they are all acces- 
sible, in original or copy, in their original completeness. 
And it is remarkable that they are not only all that is neces- 
sary to this end, but that some of them supply irresistible nega- 
tive proof, that nothing occurred personally, or face to face, 
between Washington and Hamilton, to affect the inferences 
which the written or printed documents justify; for, except 
a single personal interview between them, before the corre- 
spondence began, which interview, the correspondence 
shows, had no influence whatever on the subsequent work 
of either of the parties, there was not a single instance of 
personal intercourse, direct or indirect, from the beginning 
to the end of the whole work on both sides. The whole 
matter was conducted in writing, and without the interven- 
tion of any common friend, instructed upon the subject, and 
passing between the parties. 

Washington himself prepared a draught of a valedictory 
address, and showed it to Hamilton in Philadelphia, before 
the 10th of May, 1796. On that day Hamilton wrote to 
Washington from New York, in regard to this paper, and 
Washington sent it to him, with a letter dated the 15th 
May. 

A draught of such an Address, in Washington's hand- 
writing, either the same which he sent to Hamilton, or 
another, was found among Washington's papers, after his 
death. The paper that was so found, and which I shall 



MR. SPARKS' S VIEW OF IT. 31 

hereafter refer to as the preserved paper, is described by Mr. 
Sparks, in the Appendix to the twelfth volume of Wash- 
ington's Writings, at page 391, as follows: "It is certain, 
" however, that it was Washington's original idea to embody 
" in the Address the substance and the form of Mr. Madi- 
" son's draught, and to make such additions as events and the 
" change of circumstances seemed to require. A paper of 
" this description has been preserved, in which is first in- 
" serted Mr. Madison's draught, and then a series of memoran- 
" da or loose hints, evidently designed to be wrought into the 
" Address. These are here printed as transcribed from the 
"original manuscript:" and then follows a succession of 
paragraphs, with the heading Hints or Heads of Topics, 
filling about two pages and a half of the Appendix. 

Mr. Sparks's imperfect knowledge of some of the papers 
I have referred to, which were not published until after the 
completion of his edition of Washington's Writings, and 
perhaps something in the very considerable dissimilitude, at 
least in form, between the preserved paper and the published 
Farewell Address, induced him, probably, to regard it as 
uncertain whether this paper was the same which Wash- 
ington showed, and afterwards sent, to Hamilton, as his 
draught of the Address. In this state of doubt or disbelief, 
he omitted to print the entire paper in extenso. Some 
remarks in the initial part of it, introductory of Madison's 
draught, might have given some pain to the surviving family 
of Mr. Madison ; and if the paper was in reality, what Mr. 
Sparks seems to have thought it was, a speculative paper, 
or a paper containing mere memoranda or hints of topics 
for an address, and not a definite presentment of Wash- 
ington's thoughts and language, it may seem to have come 



32 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

within the discretion of an editor, either to select it or not, 
for publication. But the publication of several papers on 
the subject of the Address, since that edition of Washing- 
ton's Writings, particularly Hamilton's original draught, and 
Washington's letters to Hamilton, having made it not pro- 
bable merely, but morally certain, that this preserved paper 
is the very draught which was sent by Washington to Ham- 
ilton, by a letter of the 15th May, 1796, Mr. Sparks, upon 
request, immediately supplied to Mr. John C. Hamilton 
copies of the beginning and conclusion of the paper, and 
has always, I learn, been ready so to communicate copies of 
such of these papers as were in his possession, on this sub- 
ject ; and by means of them the whole draught has been 
completed, and appears in the Appendix to this Inquiry. 
There can be no reasonable doubt that the preserved paper 
at large, is the original draught of Washington, which his 
letter to Hamilton refers to. It was also, in some degree, a 
completed paper, as far as Washington personally meant to 
go. It begins with a formal address to the people, by the 
description of " Friends and Fellow-Citizens ;" and it con- 
cludes with Washington's signature in the usual form, but 
without date. Its identity is specially established by an 
alteration on the first page of it, which is noticed in Wash- 
ington's letter to Hamilton, and is made by a line drawn 
through certain expressions, and through a name at the foot 
of the first page. As the whole matter is now, at least, 
historical, there can be no propriety in leaving any part of a 
writing incomplete, which is so manifestly a principal hinge 
of the main question. The alteration in the paper has 
become, also, a matter of complete insignificancy, in the 
personal relation, to Mr. Madison or to any one else, even if, 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 33 

under any circumstances, the contrary aspect of it can be 
thought to justify a departure from the right line of history, 
in regard to the acts of great public men, who have left the 
records of them for inspection. 

There are one or two particulars in which Mr. Sparks, by 
his omission to print the concluding paper, and by remarks 
upon a part of it which he does print, has unintentionally 
done some injustice to Washington. Nothing could have 
been further from his intention. 

From the concluding part of the preserved paper, Hamil- 
ton has taken some rather touching thoughts of Washington, 
in regard to his long life of service, and to the affection which 
he bore to the land that had been his birthplace, and the 
birthplace of his ancestors for four generations. He also has 
taken from it his reference to the Proclamation of Neutrality, 
and other matters. A considerable portion of the conclusion, 
Hamilton, with Washington's approbation, has omitted ; be- 
cause, as a public paper, looking to distant posterity, as well 
as to the time present, it was thought best to turn away 
from the temporary causes of irritation, which Washington, 
with some animation, had referred to as a party injustice to 
him. One ought not to question what two such judgments 
as Washington's and Hamilton's finally approved. But the 
concluding part of Washington's draught appears to be of 
the greatest importance to his personal biography. It will 
enable the public to know him, even better than he is gene- 
rally known, and neither to love nor to honor him less. 
It may show us, that like Achilles, he was vulnerable in one 
part, not, however, in a lower part of his nature, but in the 
sensitive tegument of the higher; and that the arrows of 
party had just so far raised the skin, that his arm was up, 



34 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

and had given the wave of defiance to his enemies, prepara- 
tory to a blow, which his deep love of the whole country 
arrested. It was magnanimous as well as wise in Hamilton, 
who was a copartner and sufferer in the conflict, to exclude 
this portion of the paper from the Farewell Address ; but it 
colors Washington to the life, and with the colors of a grand 
and noble nature, not the less impressive because it was 
human nature. 

In another particular, Mr. Sparks's remarks deserve re- 
consideration. Being made, probably, under the apprehen- 
sion that the preserved paper was a mere study by Washing- 
ton for a larger work, Mr. Sparks has regarded the second 
or principal division which he has printed in his Appendix, 
as being " a series of memoranda or loose hints, evidently 
" designed to be wrought into the Address :" whereas they 
contain the great body of Washington's contribution to the 
Farewell Address, and are the basis of Hamilton's expan- 
sions, on the most important points. The thoughts, and 
sometimes the language, appear in their appropriate places 
in Hamilton's draught ; and with Madison's draught, or rather 
Washington's letter to Madison, from which that draught 
was framed, they are the entire contribution of Washington, 
except as he may have added to the copy of Hamilton's 
original draught, after its final revision and return to him. 
I am compelled to differ from Mr. Sparks on this point as 
well as on one or two others ; but nevertheless, I trust, with 
all becoming deference to his opinions.* 



* There is a fine tone of criticism in a most able and interesting work, now near its 
completion, Rawlinson's Translation of Herodotus, with Appendices containing Essays 
on important epochs and topics in Ancient History. It is not for the appropriateness 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 35 

That portion of the preserved paper to which the remarks 
of Mr. Sparks are applied, and which is indicated in his 



of any of these dissertations to the subject of this Inquiry, but for the author's manly 
freedom of dissent from opposite opinions, without the least bitterness, and for his dis- 
criminating praise without flattery, that I extract a portion or two of his remarks upon 
passages in the two best English histories of Ancient Greece. I wish them to be 
regarded as exhibiting my own state of feeling in any dissent I may express from the 
opinions of Mr. Sparks, or of any other writer upon the subject of tne Farewell 
Address. 

When speaking of the extent to which Mr. Grote supposes that the institutions of 
Solon permitted all the free inhabitants of Attica except actual aliens, to vote for 
Archons and Senators, and to take part in the annual decision of their accountability, 
whether these inhabitants were or were not members of the four tribes, Mr. Rawlinson 
says, " To me it seems that the admission of these persons to citizenship at this time, 
" is highly improbable, and that if it had been a part of the Solonian scheme, we must 
" have found distinct mention of it." — " Mr. Grote, in his account of the Clisthenic 
" legislation, seems to admit all that is here contended for; but his statements in that 
" place appear to me to be wholly inconsistent with those contained in his account 
"of the Solonian Constitution:"' and then, in a note, the author cites the inconsistent 
passages. — 3 Rawlinson s Herodotus, 406. But soon after, in speaking of his own notes 
on the modern portion of the history of Athens, the author says, " Those who require 
" more, are referred to the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Mr. Grote's history, 
" which contain the most accurate digest of the ancient authorities, and the most philo- 
" sophical comments upon them, to be found in the whole range of modern literature." 
—Ibid. 412. 

So also as to Bishop Thirlwalfs history. " If the democratic character of the Solonian 
" Constitution has been insufficiently apprehended by some of our writers, by others 
" it has been undoubtedly exaggerated to a greater extent. To ascribe to Solon (as 
" Bishop Thirlwall does) the full organization of the Helisea, as it appears in the time 
" of the orators, the institution of the Heliastic oath, of the Nomothets and Syndics, 
" and of that bulwark of the later constitution, the graphe paranomon, is to misunder- 
" stand altogether his position in Athenian constitutional history, and to fail in dis- 
" tinguishing the spirit of his legislation from that of Clisthenes." — Ibid. 405. On the 
other hand, when the author is speaking of the internal changes in the Constitution of 
Sparta, which grew out of the first Messenian war and conquest, he says, " Perhaps 
" there are scarcely sufficient data to reconstruct the true history of the period ; but the 
" view taken by Bishop Thirlwall of the changes made, and of the circumstances 
" which led to them, is at once so ingenious and so consistent with probability, that 
"it well deserves at least the attention of the student." — "Mr. Grote, without ex- 



36 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

Appendix by a line at the head, in small capitals, as hints, 
or heads of topics, does not appear to warrant such a de- 
scription. Properly speaking, they are certainly not hints 
and heads of topics, but decidedly much more. They are 
certainly not hints or heads of topics for the further use of 
Washington himself; though it is not improbable that they 
were written for the guidance of the person who should 
follow and complete the work. 

This heading is not inclosed by Mr. Sparks with marks of 
quotation, like the paper that follows, from beginning to 
end, and therefore I suppose it to be Mr. Sparks's heading. 
I have not seen the original, and it seems to be uncertain 
whether the original can be found. If the heading was 
Washington's, it must be admitted, that at the time of 
writing it, he regarded the eleven paragraphs that follow as 
hints or heads of topics ; but the paragraphs themselves, 
instead of being loose hints, slight touches, allusions or sug- 
gestions, by way of reminder, constitute a perfectly formal 
and regular paper, in extension of Madison's draught, hav- 
ing a beginning and ending, and according to Washington's 
plan, sufficiently exhaustive of each of the ten subjects 
which succeed the first paragraph. 

Of these " Hints, or Heads of Topics," the first and the 



" amining it formally, by implication rejects it.'' — "Bishop Thirlwall's conjectural 
"restoration of the fact, is on the whole satisfactory; and if not history, deserves to 
" be regarded as the best substitute for history that is possible, considering the scan- 
" tiness and contradictory character of the data." — lh. 361-3. 

This is the strain of the critic, free, candid, and explicit, without bitterness, and 
without veiling either praise or dissent in generalities ; and there are multitudes of 
like examples in the work. A too common fault of some critics among us, has 
been vague and personal bitterness, or lavish but indiscriminating praise, from which 
it has almost come to be considered, that dissent is an imputation and a challenge. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 37 

last of them embrace the subject of party disputes, in- 
vectives, and malevolent misrepresentations, which Madison 
had touched lightly, and with such apparent misapprehen- 
sion of "Washington's views. One of the central paragraphs, 
recommending pride in the name of an American, and ex- 
posing the danger of the annihilation of our national dignity 
by foreign intrigue and influence, and exhibiting both the 
follies and evils of foreign engagements, interferences, and 
favors, is developed to the extent of twenty-nine hues of 
the broad and compact page of the Appendix ; and others 
to the extent of ten, eight, and six lines each. These are 
not hints, or heads of topics. All the paragraphs consti- 
tute definite, complete, and well-expressed sentiments, 
beginning with a preamble, which sets forth, that if public 
affairs had continued to bear the aspect they assumed at the 
time the foregoing address was drawn (Mr. Madison's pre- 
paration), he could not have taken the liberty of troubling 
his fellow-citizens with any new sentiment, or with a repe- 
tition more in detail of those which are therein contained ; 
but considerable changes having taken place at home and 
abroad, he should ask their indulgence, while he expressed 
" with more lively sensibility the following most ardent 
" wishes of his heart :" and in the expression of these, he 
follows the formula he had used in his letter to Madison, 
and which Madison had pursued in his draught, when he ex- 
pressed certain of Washington's wishes, as " vows which he 
"would carry with him to his retirement and to his grave." 
They cannot be accurately described, as " Hints, or Heads 
" of Topics ;" though a hint may be taken from anything, 
and any single paragraph may be divided into heads of 
several topics, They are not, in an accurate sense, " a series 



38 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

" of memoranda or loose hints ;" though by some men, who 
take an artistic view of composition, and regard its struc- 
ture and the combination and bearing of its parts as matter 
of essential consideration, they might be so described. 

Although the entire paper is now presented in the Ap- 
pendix to this Inquiry, it will make some of my future 
remarks more intelligible, if the substance of these nine 
paragraphs intervening between the first and the last of 
them, is noticed in this place, in the order in which Wash- 
ington has arranged the subjects. 

The leading paragraph — the second in the paper — ex- 
presses the ardent wish of Washington's heart, that party 
disputes among all the friends and lovers of the country 
may subside ; or, as Providence has ordained that men shall 
not always think alike, that charity and benevolence may so 
shed their benign influence, as to banish those invectives 
which proceed from illiberal prejudices and jealousy. And 
then the paper goes on to express like fervent wishes, 

that as the Allwise Dispenser of human blessings 



has favored no nation with more abundant means of happi- 
ness than United America, we may not be so ungrateful to 
our Creator, or so regardless of ourselves and our posterity, 
as to dash the cup of beneficence thus offered to our ac- 
ceptance : 

that we may fulfil all our engagements, foreign and 

domestic, to the utmost of our abilities ; for, in public as 
well as in private life, honesty will ever be found to be the 
best policy : 

that we may avoid connecting ourselves with the 

politics of any nation, further than shall be found necessary 
to regulate our own trade, that commerce may be placed 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 39 

upon a stable footing, our merchants know their rights, and 
our government the ground on which they are to be sup- 
ported : 

that every citizen should take pride in the name of 

an American, and act as if he felt the importance of the 
character, by considering that we are now a distinct nation, 
the dignity of which will be annihilated, if we enlist our- 
selves, further than our obligations require, under the ban- 
ners of any other nation. x\nd moreover, that we should 
guard against the intrigues of every foreign nation who 
shall intermingle in our concerns, or prescribe our policy 
with other powers, if there be no infraction of our engage- 
ments with themselves, as one of the greatest evils that can 
befall us as a people ; for, whatever may be their professions, 
the event will prove, that nations, like individuals, act for 
their own benefit, and not for the benefit of others ; and 
that all their interferences are calculated to promote the 
former, and in proportion as they succeed, will make us less 
independent. Nothing is more certain, than that if we 
receive favors, we must grant favors, and, in such circum- 
stances as ours, we cannot tell beforehand on which side the 
balance will be found ; but it is easy to prove that it may 
involve us in disputes, and finally in war, to fulfil political 
alliances ; whereas, if there be no engagements on our part, 
we shall be unembarrassed, and at liberty at all times to act 
from circumstances, and the dictates of justice, sound policy, 
and our essential interests : 

that we may be always prepared for war, but never 

unsheath the sword, except in self-defence, so long as justice 
and our essential rights and national respectability can be 
preserved without it. If this country can remain in peace 



40 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

twenty years longer, such, in all probability, will be its 
population, riches, and resources, when combined with her 
distance from other quarters of the globe, as to bid defiance, 
in a just cause, to any earthly power whatever : 

that so long as we profess to be neutral, our public 

conduct, whatever our private affections may be, may accord 
with our professions, without suffering partialities or preju- 
dices to control our actions. A contrary practice is incom- 
patible with our declarations, pregnant with mischief, 
embarrassing to the administration, tending to divide us 
into parties, and ultimately productive of all those evils 
which proceed from faction : 

that our Union may be as lasting as time ; for while 

we are encircled in one band, we shall possess the strength 
of a giant, and there will be none to make us afraid. 
Divide, and we shall become a prey to foreign intrigues and 
internal discord, and shall be as miserable and contemptible 
as we are now enviable and happy. 

The ninth and final wish is, that the several departments 
may be preserved in their constitutional purity, without any 
attempt of one to encroach on the rights or privileges of 
another, — that the General and State Governments may 
move in their proper orbits, and the authorities of our own 
Constitution may be respected by ourselves, as the most 
certain means of having them respected by foreigners. 

The concluding paragraph in the division corresponds 
with that which I have already noticed as the fourth head 
in a part of Washington's suggestions, in his letter to Mr. 
Madison, in regard to the treatment of public servants ; and 
I shall quote its language hereafter. 

These are golden truths, a treasure of political wisdom, 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 41 

experience, and foresight, which, from the gravity of their 
tone, the depth of their sincerity, their simplicity, and the 
tenderness as well as the strength of the concern they 
manifest for the whole people, make them in themselves a 
" Farewell Address," as it were, from a dying father to his 
children. And they are Washington's alone, without sug- 
gestion by anybody, — Madison, Hamilton, or any other 
friend or adviser, — drawn from the depth of Washington's 
own heart ; and if the whole Farewell Address, as it now 
stands on record, were decomposed, and such parts dispelled 
as were added to give the paper an entrance into the minds 
of statesmen and legislators, and to place it among the per- 
manent rules of government, the great residuum would be 
found in these principles, an imperishable legacy to the 
people. They are the soul of the Farewell Address. 

All these thoughts will be found introduced into Hamil- 
ton's original draught of the Farewell Address, and not 
unfrequently in the language in which Washington has ex- 
pressed them ; but, from the bearing that is there given 
them, they have not only a different aspect, but a united 
and concentrated influence upon one momentous and predo- 
minant interest. Their aspect is changed. In the Hints, or 
Heads of Topics, they have the enunciative form, which is 
so common in Washington's writings — simple truths, or 
propositions, or statements of wisdom or patriotism, with 
little support by argument, and without a manifest bearing 
upon each other, or upon any general truth which they are 
meant to establish ; and they have no dependent order or 
succession. They are neither branches from a common 
trunk, nor rays converging to a common focus, but separate 
and independent truths or postulates. With the exception 



42 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER. 

of the preamble and the final clause, they might all change 
places with each other, in any way that could be chosen, 
and none of them would receive injury, nor would the effect 
of the whole be impaired by the change. But when they 
are carried into the Farewell Address, they are found to 
assume the ratiocinative or argumental form, so characteristic 
of Hamilton's writings. They are made to have a general 
bearing upon a general truth or aspiration ; and their sepa- 
rate value, and their combined strength, are augmented by 
their order and position. 

I must, therefore, assume that these paragraphs, in con- 
nection with Madison's draught, and the beginning and con- 
clusion before mentioned, did, in the design of Washington, 
constitute definitely a draught by him of a valedictory address, 
so far as he should prepare or arrange it himself; and that 
this was the very paper that Hamilton saw before the 10th 
May, 1796, and was sent to him by Washington on the 
15th May, 1796, as the basis of the work to which Wash- 
ington called him. This, however, will become more evi- 
dent by the letter itself, to be presently introduced. 

It is proper to remark in this place, that if the preserved 
paper consisted of the whole of Mr. Madison's draught, and 
of all the paragraphs called " Hints, or Heads of Topics," it 
would have filled about five and a half of such printed pages 
as are those of Mr. Sparks's Appendix. Washington's be- 
ginning and conclusion, might have added another such 
page and a half, or thereabouts. 

I shall now introduce, and in going on, partially apply or 
explain the proofs which more specially bear upon the com- 
position of the Farewell Address. 

The reference of the subject to Hamilton, of course pro- 



HAMILTON'S LETTER TO WASHINGTON, MAY 10TH, 1796. 43 

ceeded from Washington, as is shown by Hamilton's first 
letter to Washington. 

Mr. Sparks, in his Appendix, has printed the first part of 
this letter as an extract ; and it is the only part of the letter 
that has any the least reference to the subject of the pre- 
served paper. The commencement of the letter, and its 
concluding address, are as follows : — 

" New York, May 10th, 1796. 

" Sir — 

" Vv T hen last in Philadelphia, you mentioned to me your wish, 
" that I should redress a certain paper, which you had prepared. 
" As it is important that a thing of this kind should be done with 
" great care, and much at leisure touched and retouched, I submit a 
" wish, that as soon as you have given it the body you mean it to 
" have, it may be sent to me." 

^< ^ >i; >Jc >J; ^ ^4 

" Very respectfully and affectionately, 
" I have the honor to be, 
" Sir, 

" Your ob't serv't, 

" A. Hamilton." 

" The President of the United States." 

Washington replied on the 15th May, from Philadelphia; 
and as this letter is the key to Washington's intentions and 
to Hamilton's acts, the entire letter will be given, although 
it may be found at large in 6 Hamilton's Works, p. 120. 
The convenience of making an occasional remark upon a 
paragraph of it, before the whole is exhibited, will lead to 
its being presented in sections. 

" Philadelphia, May 15th, 1796. 

" My dear Sir, — 

" On this day week I wrote you a letter on the subject of the 



44 WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON, MAY 15TH, 1796. 

' information received from G M , and put it with some 

' other papers respecting the case of M. de La Fayette, under 
' cover to Mr. Jay, to whom also I had occasion to write. But in 
' my hurry (making up the despatches for the post-office next 
' morning), I forgot to give it a superscription : of course it had 
' to return from New York for one, and to encounter all the delay 
' occasioned thereby before it could reach your hands." 

" Since then I have been favored with your letter of the 10th 
' inst., and inclose (in its rough state) the paper mentioned therein, 
' with some alteration in the first page (since you saw it) relative 
' to the reference at foot. Having no copy by me, except of the 
' quoted part, nor of the notes from which it was drawn, I beg 
6 leave to recommend the draught now sent to your particular 
' attention." 



There are some inferences from this part of the letter, 
which, although self-evident, it is thought material to state 
with precision in this place. 

1. The identical paper or draught which Washington had 
prepared, which Hamilton had seen, and which he men- 
tioned in his letter of the 10th of May, was inclosed in 
Washington's letter of the 15th. Some alterations in its 
first page, relative to a reference at the foot of the page, 
had been made after Hamilton had seen the paper, and be- 
fore it was inclosed to him. These cdterations appear on the 
face of the preserved paper, mentioned by Mr. Sparks, a line 
being drawn through several words, as well as through the 
name of ** ******* a t the foot of the page. 

2. Washington, when he so inclosed the draught, had no 
copy by him of any part of the draught, except what he 
calls "the quoted part," nor of the notes from which it, 
meaning most probably the original part not quoted, had 



WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO HAMILTON. 45 

been drawn, and therefore he recommends the draught to 
Hamilton's particular attention. 

Was the preserved paper a different draught, prepared 
before Washington's letter of loth May, and not mentioned 
when he sent to Hamilton the draught inclosed in that let- 
ter ] This is to the last degree improbable ; for Washington 
said he had no copy by him except of the quoted part, 
which was Madison's draught, nor the notes from which the 
draught he sent was drawn. Such a previously prepared 
paper, if it existed, must therefore have been without a trace 
of connection with the draught that was sent. Did Wash- 
ington, after sending his draught to Hamilton, subsequently 
make another draught himself, or prepare Hints or Heads 
of Topics, corresponding with the preserved paper in Mr. 
Sparks's Appendix ] The whole subsequent correspondence 
will show the futility of such a suggestion. The draught 
sent to Hamilton was therefore the preserved paper. The 
letter proceeds : — 

" Even if you should think it best to throw the tvJtole into a 
" different form, let me request, notwithstanding, that my draught 
" may be returned to me (along with yours) with such amendments 
u and corrections as to render it as perfect as the formation is sus- 
" ceptible of; curtailed if too verbose ; and relieved of all tautology 
" not necessary to enforce the ideas in the original or quoted part. 
" My wish is that the whole may appear in a plain style, and be 
" handed to the public in an honest, unaffected, simple garb." 

It is from Washington, consequently, that first came, if 
not the suggestion that the whole should be thrown into a 
different form, the clearly implied authority to Hamilton to 
throw it into that form, if he should think it best. The 
letter still proceeds : — 



46 WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO HAMILTON. 

" It will be perceived, from hence, that I am attached to the 
" quotation. My reasons for it are, that as it is not only a fact 
" that such an address was written, and on the point of being pub- 
" lished, but known also to one or two of those characters, who are 
" now strongest and foremost in the opposition to the government, 
" and consequently to the person administering of it contrary to 
" their views, the promulgation thereof, as an evidence that it 
" was much against my inclination that I continued in office, will 
" cause it more readily to be believed, that I could have no view in 
" extending the powers of the Executive beyond the limits pre- 
" scribed by the Constitution ; and will serve to lessen, in the public 
" estimation, the pretensions of that party to the patriotic zeal and 
" watchfulness, on which they endeavor to build their own conse- 
" quence, at the expense of others who have differed from them in 
" sentiment. And besides, it may contribute to blunt, if it does 
" not turn aside, some of the shafts which, it may be presumed, will 
" be aimed at my annunciation of this event; among which, con- 
" viction of fallen popularity, and despair of being re-elected, will 
" be levelled at me with dexterity and keenness." 

In this paragraph, the reasons of Washington's attach- 
ment to the " quotation " lead immediately to the inference, 
which we now know to be true, that the " quoted part" of 
his draught consisted of Madison's draught, and thus iden- 
tifies the draught sent to Hamilton, as being composed in 
part of Madison's draught, and in part of original matter 
written by Washington, which is the character of the 
" preserved paper," according to Mr. Sparks's account of it. 
Madison was certainly one of the "one or two" who knew 
that the Address was written, and on the point of being 
published, in 1792, and who were foremost in the opposition 
to Washington's administration in 1796; and Washington 
held with some tenacity to what Madison had written, even 



WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO HAMILTON. 47 

in regard to Washington's very fallible judgment and infe- 
riority of qualifications, because the reference to it in the 
present Address would bring the matter home consciously 
to Madison, and with this could hardly fail to recur to 
him, at the same time, the consciousness of Washington's 
sincerity, candor, modesty, and real greatness and elevation, 
that would not put away from him these depreciating 
reminders of his first adviser, after their relations had 
changed. 

" Having struck out the reference to a particular character in 
" the first page of the Address, I have less (if any) objection to 
" expunging those words which are contained within parentheses, in 
" pages 5, 7, and 8, in the quoted part, and those in the eighteenth 
" page of what follows ; nor to discarding the egotisms (however 
"just they may be), if you think them liable to fair criticism, and 
" that they had better be omitted, notwithstanding some of them 
" relate facts which are but little known to the community." 

" My object has been, and must continue to be, to avoid person- 
" alities : allusions to particular .measures, which may appear 
" pointed, and to expressions which could not fail to draw upon 
" me attacks which I should wish to avoid, and might not find 
" agreeable to repel." 

Whether this reference to the eighteenth page of Wash- 
ington's manuscript draught includes the last portion of the 
" Hints, or Heads of Topics," or a part of the Conclusion, 
which has been called the fourth paper, it is impossible to 
determine, without seeing the copy-book, or the entire 
manuscript and its paging, which I have not seen. But 
this is not very material. The last paragraph of the " Hints, 
" or Heads of Topics," printed by Mr. Sparks, is one of a 
personal character, which becomes more pointed in the 



48 Washington's letter to Hamilton. 

Conclusion, not printed by Mr. Sparks; though it is not 
connected there, as it is in the " Hints or Heads of Topics," 
with the motive which led him to retain Madison's draught 
as a part of his own paper. " In expressing these senti- 
" ments," he says (" Hints, or Heads of Topics," Wash- 
ington's Writings, vol. xii, p. 394), "it will readily be 
" perceived that I can have no other view now, whatever 
i; malevolence may have ascribed to it before, than such as 
" results from a perfect conviction of the utility of the mea- 
" sure. If public servants, in the exercise of their official 
" duties, are found incompetent, or pursuing wrong courses, 
" discontinue them ; if they are guilty of malpractices, let 
" them be more exemplarily punished : in both cases, the 
" Constitution and laws have made provision. But do not 
" withdraw your confidence from them, the best incentive 
"to a faithful discharge of their duty, without just cause ; 
" nor infer, because measures of a complicated nature, which 
" time, opportunity, and close investigation alone can pene- 
" trate, — for these reasons are not easily comprehended by 
" those who do not possess the means, — that it necessarily 
" follows they must be wrong. This would not only be 
" doing injustice to your trustees, but be counteracting your 
" own essential interests, rendering those trustees, if not 
" contemptible in the eyes of the world, little better, at 
" least, than ciphers in the administration of the govern- 
" ment ; and the Constitution of your own choosing would 
" reproach you for such conduct." 

Such a paragraph as this, as well as others in the con- 
cluding paper, might very naturally be embraced by the 
license which this part of the letter gives to Hamilton. 
But this is not certain. The pages of the copy I possess do 



Washington's letter to Hamilton. 49 

not, I apprehend, conform to the original ; and there are no 
parentheses in the copy, except in two instances, quite un- 
important. Washington's marks may have been made by 
pencil, and become effaced. The references at pages 5, 7, 
and 8, cannot be ascertained by the copy. The letter goes 
on: — 

" As there will be another session of Congress before the political 
" existence of the present House of Representatives, or my own, 
" will expire, it was not my design to say a word to the Legislature 
" on this subject ; but to withhold the promulgation of my intention, 
" until the period when it shall become indispensably necessary for 
' ; the information of the Electors (which this year will be delayed 
" until the 7th of December). This makes it a little difficult and 
" uncertain what to say, so long beforehand, on the part marked 
" with a pencil, in the last paragraph of the second page." 

The reference in this last sentence, is undoubtedly to the 
paragraph of Washington's beginning, as I have called it, 
which immediately precedes Mr. Madison's draught, distin- 
guished by marks of quotation in the paper appended to 
this Inquiry, as Washington's original draught. 

" All these ideas and observations are confined, as you will 
" readily perceive, to my draught of the Valedictory Address. If 
" you form one anew, it will, of course, assume such a shape as you 
" may be disposed to give it, predicated upon the sentiments con- 
" tained in the inclosed paper." 

" With respect to the gentleman you have mentioned as successor 

" to Mr. P , there can be no doubt of his abilities, nor, in my 

" mind, is there any of his fitness ; but you know, as well as I, 
" what has been said of his political sentiments, with respect to 
" another form of government ; and from thence can be at no loss 

4 



50 Washington's relation to the 

" to guess at the interpretation which would be given to the nomi- 
" nation of him. However, the subject shall have due considera- 
" tion ; but a previous resignation would, in my opinion, carry with 
" it too much the appearance of concert, and would have a bad, 
" rather than a good effect. 

u Always and sincerely, 
" I am yours, 
"Col. A. Hamilton. - ' " Geo. WASHINGTON. 

The concluding remark in the last paragraph but one of 
this letter, is in the full character of Washington, and can- 
not be too well remembered by the reader. It is the key to 
that part of the Farewell Address that he reserved for him- 
self. It says, in the plainest language, to Hamilton, — my 
sentiments are contained in the paper I send you. Certain of 
them, which have a bearing upon particular persons or party, 
and what may be called egotisms, — matters touching myself 
particularly, — I have no objection to expunge, if you think 
them liable to fair criticism. Correct, amend, make it as 
perfect as the formation is susceptible of, to enforce the ideas 
or sentiments that are expressed in the draught. Or, throw 
the whole into a different form, if you please ; let it assume 
such a shape as you may be disposed to give it ; but the 
sentiments contained in the inclosed paper are to be the 
guide. These show my design, my object, my opinions, 
my counsels to the country, my admonitions to the whole 
people ; these are mine, and are to be observed in whatever 
plan you may adopt. 

And thus Washington's relation to the subject was de- 
clared and established at the outset by himself, and will be 
found to have been most faithfully, as well as most inge- 
niously, observed and followed by Hamilton to the end. 



COMPOSITION OF THE FAREWELL ADDRESS. 51 

Washington was the designer, in the general sense, if not in 
the artistic. The fundamental and radical thoughts were 
his, and were to remain his, even in a new draught. The 
Address was to disclose his principles and admonitions, of 
which he gave a full outline, in sentiments sufficiently de- 
lineated by him to characterize and identify them. As to 
order, symmetry, amplification, illustration, support by rea- 
soning, or by reference to general or known facts or truths, 
or even additions of the same temperament as those he had 
expressed, he committed all this to Hamilton, if Hamilton 
should think it best, under the names of "form" and 
" shape," by which "Washington distinguished the external 
appearance or composition, from the general and fundamen- 
tal truths. I may here, as well as anywhere else, ask the 
reader to observe, how expressly Hamilton will call upon 
Washington to see that none of the thoughts he had desired 
to be embodied in the work, had been omitted by oversight ; 
and how cautiously, even laboriously, Washington's eye will 
be found passing and repassing over the whole, to the very 
end. 

In the month of June following, Hamilton wrote to 
Washington upon a subject of public concern, making no 
reference to the valedictory ; and Washington replied from 
Mount Vernon, on the 26th of June. Hamilton's letter is 
printed in the sixth volume of t; Hamilton's Works," page 
133; Washington's reply to Hamilton, in the same volume, 
page 135. A considerable part of the reply relates to the 
public subject only ; but midway, it adverts to the embar- 
rassment of the administration, " from the conduct of 
" characters among ourselves ; and as every act of the 
" Executive is misrepresented and tortured, with a view to 



52 WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON, 26TH JUNE. 

" make it odious," it suggests that the aid of the friends of 
government is peculiarly necessary at such a crisis. 

" It is unnecessary, therefore, to add," the letter says, "that I 
" should be glad upon the present, and all other important occa- 
" sions, to receive yours ; and as I have great confidence in the 
" abilities and purity of Mr. Jay's views, as well as in his expe- 
" rience, I should wish that his sentiments on the purport of this 
" letter, and other interesting matters as they occur, may accom- 
" pany yours ; for, having no other wish than to promote the true 
" and permanent interests of this country, I am anxious always to 
" compare the opinions of those in whom I confide, with one ano- 
" ther, and these again (without being bound by them) with my 
" own, that I may extract all the good I can." 

The letter turns, in its concluding paragraphs, to the 
subject of the Valedictory Address, and expresses Wash- 
ington's regret that he did not publish it the day after the 
adjournment of Congress ; and gives several reasons for this 
regret ; among others, 

" that it might have prevented the remarks which, more than pro- 
" bable, will follow a late annunciation — namely, that I delayed it 
" long enough to see that the current was turned against me, before 
" I declared my intention to decline. This is one of the reasons 
" which makes me a little tenacious of the draught I furnished you 
" with, to be modified and corrected. Having passed, however, 
" what I now conceive would have been the precise moment to have 
" addressed my constituents," 

he asks Hamilton's opinion as to the next best time, and 
requests to hear from him as soon as was convenient. 

Hamilton answered this letter on the 5th July, the 






HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON, 5TH JULY. 53 

greater part of the answer being confined to the public 
matter, and to Washington's suggestions arising out of it. 

What regards the present subject is contained in these 
paragraphs : — 

" As to your resignation, sir," it proceeds to say, " it is not to be 
" regretted that the declaration of your intention should be sus- 
" pended as long as possible ; and, suffer me to add, that you should 
" really hold the thing undecided to the last moment. I do not 
" think it is in the power of party to throw any slur upon the late- 
" ness of your declaration ; and you have an obvious justification in 
" the state of things. If a storm gathers, how can you retreat ? 
" This is a most serious question." 

" The proper period now for your declaration, seems to be two 
" months before the time for the meeting of the Electors. This 
" will be sufficient. The parties will, in the meantime, electioneer 
" conditionally, that is to say, if you decline ; for a serious opposi- 
" tion to you will, I think, hardly be risked" 

" I have completed the first draught of a certain paper, and shall 
" shortly transcribe, correct, and forward it I will then also pre- 
" pare and send forward, without delay, the original paper cor- 
" rected upon the general plan of it, so that you may have both 
" before you for a choice, in full time, and for alteration if neces- 
" sary." 

By "first draught of a certain paper" Hamilton undoubt- 
edly meant his own original draught of a Farewell Address. 
By " the original paper corrected upon the general "plan of it" 
he as clearly meant Washington's original or preparatory 
draught, which had been sent to him on the 15th of May. 
The phrase " corrected upon the general plan of it" could not 
reasonably have meant corrected upon the face or paper 
itself of Washington's draught, but corrected in correspond- 



54 AMENDED COPY OF ORIGINAL DRAUGHT 

ence or conformity with its general plan, that is to say, 
without altering the plan. 

Before Hamilton entered upon what he called the first 
draught of a certain paper, he appears to have made an 
" abstract of points to form an address," a copy of which is 
printed in the seventh volume of Hamilton's Works, page 
570, and will be found in the Appendix. It places the 
points in the order in which they are afterwards developed 
in Hamilton's original draught, and must be particularly 
noticed hereafter. 

It is here called the original draught of Hamilton, for the 
purpose of constantly distinguishing it in my future remarks. 
Hamilton sent a corrected and amended copy of this draught 
to Washington, as he promised to do. His letter says, " he 
shall shortly transcribe, correct, and forward it." The original 
draught bears an indorsement in Hamilton's handwriting, in 
these words : " Copy of the original draught, considerably 
amended;" which cannot mean that the paper itself, on 
which the indorsement was made, was considerably amended 
from some other original, — for the paper itself is singularly 
rough, and bears many interlineations, marginal and other- 
wise, which in some respects deface it, and leaves also a 
considerable blank in it, to be, perhaps, afterwards filled 
up, — but it must import that the copy of that, the original 
draught, was considerably amended ; and this amended or 
corrected copy, was the copy, no doubt, which Hamilton sent 
to Washington, the rough original which bears the indorse- 
ment remaining with Hamilton, and being now with Hamil- 
ton's papers in the Department of State. It was this 
corrected copy that was afterwards returned by Washington 
to Hamilton, at his request, for revision, and was again cor- 
rected or revised, and in one or two particulars enlarged by 



SENT TO WASHINGTON, AND NOW MISSING. 55 

him, and again returned to Washington. This corrected 
copy, to distinguish it from the original draught, will here- 
after be called Hamilton's revision. This large explanation 
may be thought superfluous ; but, if attended to, it will be 
found to prevent confusion, in the many references which 
will occur to the different papers, and will also save the 
necessity of periphrase. 

To what extent, and in what manner the copy of the ori- 
ginal draught which was sent to Washington, was amended or 
corrected, either at first, or upon a revision, cannot be known 
with absolute certainty ; for we shall learn hereafter that 
this paper is the only missing link. It may be heard of again 
in the course of these remarks, and may, some time or other, 
appear ; but it will not be discovered in time for the pur- 
poses of this Inquiry. We know from infallible proofs, that 
the amendments or corrections did not go to the extent of 
changing the general order, subjects, or sentiments of the 
paragraphs in Hamilton's original draught. He may have 
struck out three of them, and a part of one or two of them, 
and may have added two, or at most three, new ones. He 
may have divided a few of the original paragraphs, and con- 
solidated two paragraphs in one, in perhaps two or three 
instances. The principal amendments must have been in 
words, — a different selection from words or turns of expres- 
sion nearly synonymous, and not changing the general 
thought of the sentence. The comparison of Hamilton's 
rough original draught with Washington's printed Farewell 
Address, will establish the former, as continuing substan- 
tially to the end, an identity, under all the amendments or 
corrections that were made by Hamilton, or Washington. 

On the 30th July, Hamilton wrote the letter to Wash- 
ington which follows : — 



5<j Hamilton's letter to Washington, 30th july, 1796. 

"New York, 30th July, 179G. 

" Sir,— 

" I have the pleasure to send you herewith a certain draught, 
" which I have endeavored to make as perfect as my time and en- 
" gagements would permit. It has been my object to render this 
" act importantly and lastingly useful, and, avoiding all just cause 
" of present exception, to embrace such reflections and sentiments 
" as will wear well, progress in approbation with time, and redound 
" to future reputation. How far I have succeeded, you will judge. 

" I have begun the second part of the task, the digesting the 
" supplementary remarks to the first address, which, in a fortnight, 
" I hope also to send you ; yet, I confess, the more I have consi- 
" dered the matter, the less eligible this plan has appeared to me. 
" There seems to me to be a certain awkwardness in the thing, and 
" it seems to imply that there is a doubt whether the assurance, 
" without the evidence, would be believed. Besides that, I think 
" that there are some ideas that will not wear well in the former 
" address; and I do not see how any part can be omitted, if it is 
" to be given as the thing formerly prepared. Nevertheless, when 
" you have both before you, you can judge. 

" If you should incline to take the draught now sent, after pe- 
" rusing, and noting anything that you wish changed, and will send 
" it to me, I will, with pleasure, shape it as you desire. This may 
" also put it in my power to improve the expression, and perhaps, 
" in some instances, condense. 

" I rejoice that certain clouds have not lately thickened, and that 
" there is a prospect of a brighter horizon. 

" With affectionate and respectful 

" attachment, I have the honor to be, 
" Sir, 

" Your very obedient servant, 

" The President of the United States." " A. HAMILTON. 

On the 10th of August, 1796, Hamilton again wrote to 
Washington, as follows : — 



hamilton to washington, 10th august, and vice versa. 57 

" Sir — 

" About a fortnight since, I sent you a certain draught. I now 
" send you another, on the plan of incorporation. Whichever you 
" may prefer, if there be any part you wish to transfer from one to 
" another, any part to be changed, or if there be any material idea 
" in your own draught which has happened to be omitted, and which 
" you wish introduced, — in short, if there be anything further in 
" the matter in which I can be of any [service], I will, with great 
" pleasure, obey your commands. 

" Very respectfully and affectionately, 
" I have the honor to be, 
" Sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" A. Hamilton. 

" To the President." " August 10th, 1796. 

Washington's draught in its original form, together with 
the other on the plan of incorporation, must have been re- 
turned at the same time with this letter, though it is not so 
expressed. The care and return of it were enjoined by 
Washington, and he had it, with the other, in his hands, 
when he wrote his letter of 25 th August, hereafter given. 

On the same 10th August, Washington acknowledged 
Hamilton's letter of 30th July, and the draught it 
inclosed. 

"Mount Vernon, 10th August, 1796. 

" My dear Sir,— 

" The principal design of this letter is to inform you that your 
" favor of the 30th ult., with its inclosure, got safe to my hands by 
" the last post, and that the latter shall have the most attentive 
" consideration I am able to give it. 

o 

" A cursory reading it has had; and the sentiments therein con- 
" tained are extremely just, and such as ought to be inculcated. 



58 WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON, 10TH AUGUST. 

" The doubt that occurs at first view, is the length of it for a news- 
" paper publication ; and how far the occasion would countenance 
" its appearing in any other form, without dilating more on the 
" present state of matters, is questionable. All the columns of a 
" large gazette could scarcely, I conceive, contain the present 
" draught. But, having made no accurate calculation of this 
" matter, I may be much mistaken. 

" If any matters should occur to you as fit subjects of communi- 
" cation at the opening of the next session of Congress, I would 
" thank you for noting and furnishing me with them. It is my 
" wish and my custom to provide all the materials for the speech in 
" time, that it may be formed at leisure. 

" With sincere esteem and affectionate regard, 
" I am always yours, 

" Geo. Washington. 

" Col. A. Hamilton." 



One fact that must strike the reader upon perusing this 
letter, is the great emphasis which Washington lays upon 
the extent or magnitude of Hamilton's draught. Wash- 
ington had, no doubt, intended his draught for a news- 
paper, as being the best instrument of diffusive publication. 
Upon a cursory reading of this draught, he perceived, as he 
thought, that all the columns of a large gazette would 
scarcely contain it ; and that it was questionable • whether 
the occasion would countenance its appearing in another 
form, without dilating more on the present state of matters. 
Indeed, it is the only fact with regard to Hamilton's draught 
which the letter records, except that his letter and draught 
had been received, and that the draught had had a cursory 
reading : and this fact will be found to have a marked bear- 
ing on the main question to be answered, namely, the con- 



COMPARATIVE LENGTH OF THE TWO DRAUGHTS. 59 

tributary shares of Washington and Hamilton in the 
Farewell Address. 

The two parts of "Washington's draught, which Mr. 
Sparks has printed in the Appendix to the twelfth volume 
of Washington's Writings, — Madison's draught, and Wash- 
ington's part, called in that Appendix " Hints or Heads of 
Topics," — would have filled, as has been remarked, about 
five pages of printed matter, of the same size as the pages 
in his Appendix ; and if to these be added the beginning 
and conclusion of Washington, they will make about a page 
and a half more ; and these together would not have made 
up one-half of what the columns of a large newspaper would 
have contained. By recurring to the copy of Hamilton's 
original draught, which is presented in the seventh volume 
of his Works, beginning at the top of page 575, it will be 
found to end seven lines below the beginning of page 594, 
and thus to contain nineteen pages. The page of Mr. 
Sparks's Appendix contains about a fifth more matter than 
Hamilton's page, from which we may deduce that Hamil- 
ton's draught was more than twofold larger than the entire 
preparation of Washington, including all its four parts. 
Washington's emphatic remarks show that Hamilton's 
draught must have greatly exceeded his own in length, 
without excluding from the latter several long paragraphs 
which, in accordance with Washington's permission, Hamil- 
ton had thought it expedient to omit. A more substantial 
comparison will be made hereafter. 

Before the 25th of August, 1796, Washington must have 
received Hamilton's letter of the 10th, which inclosed to 
Washington, probably his own draught, and certainly, the 
incorporation with that draught of Hamilton's corrections 



60 Washington's letter to Hamilton, 25th august. 



or emendations ; for on that 25th of August, Washington 
had in his hands those two papers, — his own draught, and 
the same draught corrected or amended by Hamilton, — with 
which he had compared a third paper, namely, the amended 
copy of Hamilton's original draught. 

On that day, Washington addressed the following letter 
to Hamilton, returning to him at the same time the copy of 
Hamilton's original draught : — 

(private.) 

" Philadelphia, 25th August, 1796. 

" My dear Sir,— 

" I have given the paper herewith inclosed several serious and 
' attentive readings, and prefer it greatly to the other draughts, 
' being more copious on material points, more dignified on the 
' whole, and, with less egotism, of course less exposed to criticism, 
1 and better calculated to meet the eye of the discerning reader 
' (foreigners particularly, whose curiosity, I have little doubt, will 
' lead them to inspect it attentively, and to pronounce their opinion 
' on the performance)." 

" When the first draught was made, besides having an eye to the 
' consideration above mentioned, I thought the occasion was fair 
c (as I had latterly been the subject of considerable invective) to 
1 say what is there contained of myself; and as the address was 
' designed in a more especial manner for the yeomanry of the 
' country, I conceived it was proper they should be informed of 
' the object of that abuse, the silence with which it had been 
' treated, and the consequences which would naturally flow from 
' such unceasing and virulent attempts to destroy all confidence 
' in the executive part of the government ; and that it would be 
' best to do it in language that was plain and intelligible to their 
' understandings." 

" The draught now sent comprehends the most, if not all, these 
' matters, is better expressed, and, I am persuaded, goes as far as 
' it ought, with respect to any personal mention of myself." 



Washington's letter, 25th august. 61 



" I should have seen no occasion myself for its undergoing a 
" revision; but as your letter of the 30th ult., which accompanied 
" it, intimates a wish to do this, and knowing that it can be more 
" correctly done after a writing has been out of sight for some time, 
" than while it is in hand, I send it in conformity thereto, with a 
" request, however, that you would return as soon as you have care- 
" fully re-examined it ; for it is my intention to hand it to the 
" public before I leave this city, to which I came for the purpose of 
" meeting General Pinckney, receiving the Ministers from Spain 
" and Holland, and for the despatch of other business, which could 
" not be so well executed by written communications between the 
" heads of Departments and myself, as by oral conferences. So 
" soon as these are accomplished, I shall return ; at any rate, I 
" expect to do so by, or before, the tenth of next month, for the 
" purpose of bringing up my family for the winter." 

" I shall expunge all that is marked in the paper as unimportant, 
" &c. &c. ; and as you perceive some marginal notes, written with 
" a pencil, I pray you to give the sentiments so noticed mature 
" consideration. After which, and in every other part, if change 
" or alteration takes place in the draught, let them be so clearly 
" interlined, erased, or referred to in the margin, as that no mistake 
" may happen in copying for the press." 

" To what editor in this city do you think it had best be sent for 

" publication ? Will it be proper to accompany it with a note to 

" him, expressing (as the principal design of it is to remove doubts 

" at the next election) that it is hoped, or expected, that the State 

" printers will give it a place in their gazettes ; or preferable to let 

"it be carried by my private secretary to that press which is 

" destined to usher it to the world, and suffer it to work its way 

" afterwards ? If you think the first most eligible, let me ask you 

" to sketch such a note as you may judge applicable to the oc- 

" casion." 

" With affectionate regard, 

" I am always yours, 

"Col. A. Hamilton." " GEO. WASHINGTON. 



62 WASHINGTON TO HAMILTON, 1ST SEPTEMBER. 



It is particularly worthy of observation, that Washington, 
after " several serious and attentive readings," and a fort- 
night's consideration, remarked in this letter, that the copy 
of Hamilton's original draught comprehended " most if not 
" all those matters" that personally concerned the feelings 
of Washington. He chose to say it was better expressed, 
and went as far as was proper. It leads me to remark, that 
a careful comparison of all that was written on both sides, 
will discover to every person of candor, that all Washington's 
sentiments were brought with infinite care into that draught, 
nothing omitted, nothing modified, except in such a manner, 
in both respects, as to obtain Washington's approbation, and 
nothing added through a personal design of the writer, or in 
reference to himself, but only to give the greater effect to 
Washington's own sentiments. 

On the 1st of September, Washington again wrote to 
Hamilton (Hamilton's Works, vol. vi, p. 147), saying: — 

" About the middle of last week I wrote to you; and that it 
" might escape the eye of the inquisitive (for some of my letters 
" have lately been pried into), I took the liberty of putting it under 
" a cover to Mr. Jay." 

" Since then, revolving on the paper that was inclosed therein, 
" on the various matters it contained, and on the just expression of 
" the advice or recommendation which was given in it, I have re- 
" gretted that another subject (which, in my estimation, is of inte- 
" resting concern to the well-being of this country) was not touched 
" upon also : I mean education generally, as one of the surest means 
" of enlightening and giving just ways of thinking to our citizens; 
" but particularly the establishment of a university." 

And then the letter proceeds at some length to state the 



HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON, AND REPLY, 4TH AND 6TH SEPT. 63 

advantages of such an institution at the seat of the General 
Government, and a purpose, on Washington's part, to con- 
tribute to its endowment. 

" Let me pray you, therefore, to introduce a section in the Ad- 
" dress expressive of these sentiments, and recommendatory of the 
" measure, without any mention, however, of my proposed personal 
" contribution to the plan. Such a section would come in very 
" properly after the one which relates to our religious obligations, 
" or in a preceding part, as one of the recommendatory measures to 
" counteract the evils arising from geographical discriminations." 

Hamilton replied on the 4th of September : — 

"New York, Sept. 4th, 1796. 

" Sir — 

" I have received your two late letters, the last but one trans- 
" mitting me a certain draught. It will be corrected and altered 
" with attention to your suggestions, and returned by Monday's or 
" Tuesday's post. The idea of the University is one of those which 
" I think will be most properly reserved for your speech at the 
" opening of the Session. A general suggestion respecting educa- 
" tion, will very fitly come into the Address. 

" With respect, and affectionate attachment, 
" I have the honor to remain, 
" Sir, 

" Your very obed't ser't, 
u A. Hamilton. 

K The President." 

Washington replied on the 6th of September (Hamilton's 
Works, vol. vi, p. 149) : — 

" I received yesterday your letter of the 4th instant. If the 
" promised paper has not been sent before this reaches you, Mr. 



64 HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 



" Kip, the bearer of it, who goes to New York, partly on mine and 
" partly on his own business, will bring it safely. I only await now, 
" and shall in a few days do it impatiently, for the arrival of General 
" Pinckney. 

" If you think the idea of a University had better be reserved 
" for the speech at the opening of the Session, I am content to defer 
" the communication of it until that period; but even in that case, 
" I would pray you, as soon as convenient, to make a draught for 
" the occasion, predicated on the ideas with which you have been 
" furnished ; looking at the same time, into what was said on this 
" head in my second speech to the first Congress, merely with a view 
" to see what was said upon the subject at that time." 

Hamilton, on the preceding day, had written thus to 
Washington : — 

' ; New York, Sept. 5th, J 796. 

" Sir — 

" I return the draught corrected agreeably to your intimations. 
" You will observe a short paragraph added respecting Education. 
" As to the establishment of a University, it is a point which, in 
" connection with Military Schools, and some other things, I meant, 
" agreeably to your desire, to suggest to you, as parts of your 
" speech at the opening of the Session. There will several things 
" come there much better than in a general Address to the People, 
" which likewise would swell the Address too much. Had I had health 
" enough, it was my intention to have written it over ; in which case 
" I could both have -improved and abridged. But this is not the 
" case. I seem now to have regularly a period of ill-health every 
" summer. 

" I think it will be advisable simply to send the Address by your 
" secretary to Dunlap. It will, of course, find its way into all 
" the other papers. Some person on the spot ought to be 



RETURNING REVISION. SAME TO SAME, SEPT. 8TH. 65 

" charged with a careful examination of the impression by the 
" proof-sheet." 

" Very respectfully and affectionately, 
" I have the honor to be, 
" Sir, 

" Your very obed't serv't, 

" A. Hamilton. 

" The President." 

On the 8th September, Hamilton replied to "Washington's 
letter of the 6th: — 

"New York, Sept. Sth, 1796. 

" Sir — 

" I have received your letter of the 6th by the bearer. The 
" draught was sent forward by post on Tuesday. 

" I shall prepare a paragraph with respect to the University, and 
" some others for consideration, respecting other points which have 
" occurred." 

" With true respect and attachment, 
" I have the honor to be, 
" Sir, 

" Your very obedient servant, 

" A. Hamilton. 

"The President." 

And thus ends the correspondence between Washington 
and Hamilton on the subject of the Farewell Address. 
That Address was dated and signed by Washington on the 
17th of September, nine days after the date of Hamilton's 
last letter, and was published on the 19th September, in 
Claypoole's Daily Advertiser. An acknowledgment of the 
safe arrival of Hamilton's revision, the revised copy of his 
amended draught, thus sent forward by post on Tuesday, 



66 RESULT OF CORRESPONDENCE. 

may have been written by Washington; bnt there is no 
copy of snch an acknowledgment by letter in Hamilton's 
Works, nor a copy of any other letter from Washington to 
Hamilton, nntil the 2d of November, more than six weeks 
after the publication of the Farewell Address in the gazette. 
It is made manifest by this correspondence, that if Wash- 
ington's original draught is well identified with the preserved 
paper, and if Hamilton's original draught, also, is identified 
with the paper printed in his works, then we may obtain all 
that Washington contributed specifically to the Farewell 
Address, and all that Hamilton contributed, such additions 
only excepted as are found in the Farewell Address, and 
cannot be traced to either of the preceding draughts ; and 
these may have been made by new matter, or by alterations, 
in Hamilton's amended copy revised, or by Washington in his 
autograph copy. So far as the author of these additions or 
alterations shall remain uncertain by the loss or disappearance 
of Hamilton's amended copy afterwards revised, so far the 
respective contributors of those additions or alterations will 
not be distinguished to absolute demonstration ; but it will 
be of little prejudice to the result of this Inquiry ; for the 
original basis of each contributor being fixed by the two 
draughts, — Washington's draught and Hamilton's original 
draught, — the differences in the Farewell Address may 
either be traced with reasonable certainty to one of the 
parties, or be disregarded, as having no influence upon the 
main question. 

It is proper in this place, for the better apprehension and 
estimation of the proofs, to ask attention to one or two matters 
not already adverted to. 

A corrected and amended copy of Hamilton's original 



THE ROUGH REVISION SENT TO WASHINGTON. 67 

draught passed once from Hamilton to Washington, on the 
30th July, 1796, and once came back from Washington to 
Hamilton, on the 25th of August following. I say a cor- 
rected and amended copy, because Hamilton's letter of 5th 
July promised that he would " shortly transcribe, correct, 
and forward it;" and he indorsed on the rough original, 
" Copy of the original draught, considerably amended" 

Washington's draught, and the transcript of that draught 
corrected by Hamilton, which, as will hereafter be seen, was 
read by Hamilton to Jay, having been sent by Hamilton to 
Washington on the 10th of August, and put aside, with his 
own preparatory draught, by Washington's letter of 25th of 
August, from his great preference for Hamilton's draught, 
they were not the subject of remark by either party after- 
wards. They may, therefore, be dismissed from further 
consideration in this place. 

Hamilton's copy of the original draught being returned 
to him on the 25th of August for revision, with certain 
remarks, he proceeded to revise and correct it, and returned it 
to Washington on Tuesday, the 6 th September. This revi- 
sion did not come to Hamilton's hands again, and was not 
the subject of further remark between the parties. Hamilton 
sent it to Washington in the rough state in which the revi- 
sion had left it, because, as his letter remarks, he had not 
health at the time to transcribe it. The almost necessary 
presumption, therefore, is, that the amended copy of the 
original draught was the very paper that was revised and 
sent back. If the copy had been revised and corrected on 
fair paper, there was nothing in the corrections, as we can 
very safely infer from the Farewell Address, when compared 
with the original draught, of which the copy is said by 



68 THE MISSING REVISION. NO CORRECTIONS 

Hamilton to have been considerably amended, that such a 
writer as Hamilton would not have made on such paper, 
without defacing it to a degree that would have called for 
an apology. The corrections, we may presume, were en- 
tirely verbal, — adding a clause on education, and writing 
that, perhaps, in the margin, with a mark of reference to its 
place in the body of the Address, which may account for 
what will be found to have happened to it in Washington's 
autograph copy. This, however, is to some extent conjec- 
tural; for Hamilton's revision of the amended copy of his 
original draught is not accessible to me, nor has it been at 
any time, as I understand, to Hamilton's family. I have re- 
ceived very credible intimations, that it has been seen at the 
city of Washington, many years since Washington's death. 
But, for the purposes of this Inquiry, or for the purpose of 
gaining any weight whatever to aid the proof of the previous 
existence and transmission of the original draught to Wash- 
ington, or of its internal character as an exemplar of the Ad- 
dress, I place no reliance on these intimations. They are 
noticed only to keep alive the hope, that the paper, if exist- 
ing, may be placed where it may be used either for the con- 
firmation, or for the refutation of this Essay. It is impossi- 
ble for any person to stand in a state of more pure neutrality 
than I do, as to the direction in which the evidence shall 
incline the scale of literary or artistic merit in the Farewell 
Address, to one or the other party. It does not, in truth, 
concern either Washington or Hamilton. In their lives 
they were far above such a consideration ; and since death 
has sealed, indestructibly, the reputation of each, different 
as the respective elements of it were, the whole question, in 
this aspect, is of no moment whatever. It is the higher 



OF IT BY WASHINGTON, BEFORE IT LAST CAME TO HIM. 69 

consideration of perfect honor, fidelity, and truth on each 
side, in the whole transaction, that has given interest to a 
statement of the entire evidence, preparatory to some final 
remarks on the bearing of the parties, after the Farewell 
Address was published to the world, in regard to the proofs 
of co-operation. 

After thus showing incontestably, by the correspondence, 
that the amended copy of Hamilton's original draught passed 
once to Washington, and came back to Hamilton, and that 
this paper, revised by Hamilton, passed once to Washington, 
and never came back, and that Washington had not in the 
meanwhile touched line or word, and did not touch line or 
word in the body of the work, before it finally came back 
to his hands, nine or ten days before he signed his Farewell 
Address, — he said only " I shall expunge" certain parts, and 
made pencil notes in the margin for consideration of other 
parts, — we are not only better prepared to estimate any 
alterations Washington made after it came back to him, but 
are quite prepared, at this time, to dissent from the language 
which Mr. Sparks has used, not certainly for the purpose of 
obscuring, but to the actual obscuration, of the question of 
relative contribution by Washington and Hamilton to the 
Farewell Address. 

It may be true literally, as Mr. Sparks says, that " several 
" letters passed between them." Suggestions were made on 
" both sides, some of which were approved and adopted, 
" others disapproved and rejected. The draughts were 
" sent back and forth from one to the other." All this may 
be true literally, but it is not substantially correct, to the 
effect of confounding the work of Hamilton with the work 
of Washington in the Farewell Address. Washington, at 



70 Washington's full adoption of it. 

the outset, proposed clauses in regard to party invectives, 
and personal sensibility to them, which Hamilton did not 
approve; and Washington acquiesced in the rejection of 
them. Hamilton made the work " more copious on material 
" points, more dignified on the whole, and with less egotism f 
and Washington approved. Washington did not reject 
a single sentence that Hamilton had written or suggested. 
He said, "I shall expunge certain clauses, as unimpor- 
" tant," &c. &c. ; and we shall see what they were by his 
autograph copy. Seven days after Hamilton's revised 
draught was sent back to him, Washington suggested two 
new clauses, one of which Hamilton thought out of place, 
and Washington acquiesced in its rejection; the other 
Hamilton said would fitly come into the revision, and it 
is found in the place which Washington had pointed out 
as appropriate. The draughts did not go bach and forth 
from the one to the other, in the true sense of that idiom. 
In such a connection, the expression implies repetition, for 
the purpose of mutual correction and change. It is the 
same as to and fro, — several times in opposite directions, for 
mutual criticism and alteration. The facts show that there 
was nothing like it. 

The great fact that comes out of the correspondence, is, 
that Washington, speaking of Hamilton's draught, after a 
fortnight's consideration, adopts it, with full and strong- 
praise of its excellence, greater copiousness and dignity, and 
with manifest satisfaction at the prospect of its impression 
upon discerning readers, foreigners especially. I honor and 
revere Washington infinitely too much to believe, that he 
could have expressed this satisfaction, in connection with 
the thought that Hamilton's relation to the paper was to 



Washington's adoption of the revision. 71 

be forever concealed, to the abounding of his own praise. 
The thought was impossible to him. His own sentiments, 
in their full presentment, must have been the source of 
his satisfaction, and not his praise from the manner of pre- 
senting them. He did not see for himself that there was 
any occasion to revise the draught. He returned it only in 
accordance with the writer's wish, for his further improve- 
ment of it. 

There is even stronger proof of "Washington's adoption of 
this draught, than these expressions. Upon returning the 
draught for Hamilton's revision, Washington expressly re- 
quested, that if change or alteration should take place in it, 
it should be so clearly interlined, erased, or referred to in the 
margin, as that no mistake might be made in copying it for 
the press ; thus, in some degree, adopting Hamilton's subse- 
quent corrections by anticipation. And well and safely 
might Washington do so, after perceiving how faithfully, 
and with what true discernment and feeling, his own sen- 
timents had been already appreciated and expressed by 
Hamilton. 

This full adoption by Washington of Hamilton's corrected 
original draught, with more than Washington's usual effu- 
sion of feeling and language, taken in connection with his 
eagerness to have it sent back to him without delay, so dis- 
tinctly marked in any new corrections, as that it might 
readily be copied for the press, and with his further inquiry 
in regard to the particular gazette that was to publish it, 
and his request for the draught of a letter to the editor, if 
that course should be thought best by Hamilton, do amount 
to such persuasive proof that the revised draught of Hamil- 
ton, with or without minor alterations by Washington, 



72 MR. SPARKS'S DOUBTS OF WASHINGTON'S DRAUGHT. 

would be copied for the press, signed, and published by him 
as his Farewell Address, that even if Hamilton's original 
draught and abstract, as well as the amended and revised 
draught, had been destroyed or lost forever, no person accus- 
tomed to weigh evidence would hesitate to say, from the 
necessary import of Washington's and Hamilton's letters, 
that the Farewell Address was copied and printed from 
a draught by Hamilton, and not from Washington's draught, 
nor from that draught corrected by Hamilton. I shall post- 
pone for the present, a further accumulation of proofs to the 
same effect, until I have introduced another topic. 

That preparatory draught of Washington, the same which 
Mr. Sparks has described, and I have called, the preserved 
paper, is so well identified as the draught which Washing- 
ton sent to Hamilton on the 15th May, 1796, that it must 
be unnecessary to say more on that point. A draught was 
sent by Washington to Hamilton at that time, beyond all 
doubt. This preserved paper corresponds with it in all the 
points, which the letter of that date refers to. There is no 
other draught or paper by Washington, and, as far as appears, 
there never has been, to compete with that preserved paper, 
for the character it bears, as a preparatory draught by Wash- 
ington of a Farewell Address. Its own claims to be that 
draught, are the strongest possible on the face of the pre- 
served paper ; and there is not, nor does there appear ever 
to have been, a paper by Washington, that has any claims 
whatever to stand in its place. The preserved paper was, 
therefore, the draught of Washington, which he sent to 
Hamilton at the date referred to. 

Yet, from the inability of Mr. Sparks so to regard it, has 
proceeded all the indistinctness of his views in regard to the 



several contributions of the two parties ; and he appears to 
have been fortified in it by Mr. Jay's letter to Judge Peters. 
Though not distinct in his views of the degree of participa- 
tion which each party had in the Farewell Address, Mr. 
Sparks is very distinct in his expressions, that there were no 
means of ascertaining what Washington's draught was, 
though he admits that a draught had been " prepared" by 
"Washington. He remarks that Hamilton's " note" (of the 
10th May, 1796) u is dated more than four months before 
" the Farewell Address was published ; and it appears that 
" a draught of some sort, had already been ' prepared' by 
" Washington." " What were the contents of the draught 
" here alluded to, there are note no means of ascertaining ." And 
again : referring to the paper in his own possession as editor 
of Washington's Writings, which he has described as Hints, 
or Heads of Topics, he says, — " Whether these hints were 
" sent to Hamilton, as here written, or to what extent they 
" were previously enlarged and arranged, cannot now be 
" told." 

The result with Mr. Sparks, therefore, was, that there was 
no point of beginning or starting, to make his survey of the 
joint contribution ; and the non-existence of a ground plot, 
by Washington, of what he had contributed in particular, 
was consequently something like a desideratum to one, the 
state of whose information disposed him to leave the definite 
contribution of each of the parties in uncertainty. It is from 
this feeling, I incline to think, Mr. Sparks took some sup- 
port from Mr. Jay's letter which he quotes, as showing that 
Washington's draught had not been seen by Mr. Jay, and 
that the character of that draught was therefore still an un- 
certainty. Mr. Jay's error, in thinking that the Farewell 



74 MR. jay's letter to judge peters. 

Address was, and could only be with propriety, Washington's 
draught corrected by Hamilton, was, however, a very much 
greater error than that of Mr. Sparks, who erred only in 
point of expectation, that Washington's draught could not 
be identified. 

That interview between Hamilton and Jay, which Mr. 
Jay's letter to Judge Peters describes, after previously giving 
at great length, his opinions of Washington, and especially 
of certain points in Washington's character, and of certain 
internal evidence in the Farewell Address, to sustain his 
conviction that Washington only was the writer of the Ad- 
dress, merits particular consideration. 

It was after the 30th July, 1796, and before the 10th of 
August following, that the interview occurred. The date is 
irrefragably fixed in this manner. Hamilton's letter of 5th 
July to Washington, states that his own original draught was 
then completed, though not copied and corrected. In his 
letter to Washington, of the 30th July, Hamilton sent the 
corrected copy of it to Washington, and said : "I have 
" begun the second part of the task, the digesting the supple- 
" mentary remarks to the first address, which, in a fortnight, / 
" hope also to send your This was Washington's draught 
corrected " upon the general plan of it." On the 10th of 
August, Hamilton sent that corrected draught to Washing- 
ton. This, therefore, was the corrected draught which, be- 
tween these last two dates, had been read by Hamilton to 
Jay, in that interview. 

It is proper, in this place, to make a copious extract from 
the letter of Mr. Jay to Judge Peters, of the 29th March, 
1811, from the " Life and Writings of John Jay," vol. ii, 
p. 336:— 



MR. JAY'S LETTER TO JUDGE PETERS. 75 

f Your letter conveyed to me the first and only information I 
j have received, that a copy of President Washington's Valedictory 
' Address had been found among the papers of General Hamilton, 
' and in his handwriting ; and that a certain gentleman had also a 
' copy of it in the same handwriting." 

" The intelligence is unpleasant and unexpected. Had the 
' Address been one of those official papers which, in the course of 
1 affairs, the Secretary of the proper Department might have pre- 
' pared, and the President have signed, these facts would have 
' been unimportant; but it was & personal act, — of choice, not of 
i official duty, — and it was so connected with other obvious conside- 
' rations, as that he only could with propriety write it. In my 
' opinion President "Washington must have been sensible of this 
' propriety ; and, therefore, strong evidence would be necessary to 
' make me believe that he violated it. Whether he did or did not, 
' is a question which naturally directs our attention to whatever 
' affords presumptive evidence respecting it ; and leads the mind 
' into a long train of correspondent reflections. I will give you a 
' summary of those which have occurred to me ; not because I think 
' them necessary to settle the point in question, for the sequel will 
' show that they are not, but because the occasion invites me to 
£ take the pleasure of reviewing, and bearing testimony to the 
1 merits of our departed friend." 

" Is it to be presumed, from these facts, that General Hamilton 
' was the real, and the President only the reputed author of that 
' Address ? Although they countenance such a presumption, yet I 
' think its foundation will be found too slight and shallow to resist 
' that strong and full stream of counter-evidence which flows from 
' the conduct and character of that great man : a character not 
{ blown up into transient splendor by the breath of adulation, but 
' being composed of his great and memorable deeds, stands, and 
' will forever stand, a glorious monument of human excellence." 

The writer then proceeds to review at great length the 
character and acts of Washington, and his abilities as a 



76 MR. jay's letter to judge peters. 

writer especially, occupying nearly six pages of the volume 
with this subject; and, distinguishing, at their close, between 
the full composition of such an address, and the correction 
of it, which might be a friendly office, he proceeds to say : — 

" Among those to whose judgment and candor President Wash- 
" ington would commit such an interesting and delicate task, where 
" is the man to be found who would have had the hardihood to say 
" to him in substance, — Sir, I have examined and considered your 
" draught of an address : it will not do ; it is really good for 
" nothing. But, sir, I have taken the trouble to write a proper 
" one for you ; and I now make you a present of it. I advise you 
" to adopt it, and to pass it on the world as your own. The cheat 
" will never be discovered, for you may depend on my secrecy. 
" Sir, I have inserted in it a paragraph that will give the public a 
" good opinion of your modesty. I will read it to you ; it is in 
" these words : ' In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, 
" ' that I have with good intentions contributed towards the organi- 
" ' zation and administration of the government, the best exertions 
" ' of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious 
" ' in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience 
" ' in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has 
" ' strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself.' ' 

" If it be possible to find a man among those whom he esteemed 
" capable of offering to him such a present, it is impossible to believe 
" that President Washington was the man to whom such a present 
" would have been acceptable. They who knew President Wash- 
" ington, and his various endowments, qualifications, and virtues, 
" know that, aggregately considered, they formed a tout ensemble 
" which has rarely been equalled, and perhaps never excelled." 

" Thus much for presumptive evidence. I will now turn your 
" attention to some that is direct. 

" The history (if it may be so called) of the Address, is not un- 



MR. JAY'S LETTER TO JUDGE PETERS. 77 

known to me ; but as I came to the knowledge of it under implied 
confidence, I doubted, when I first received jour letter, whether I 
ought to disclose it. On more mature reflection, I became con- 
vinced that if President Washington was now alive, and informed 
of the facts in question, he would not only authorize, but also 
desire me to reduce it to writing, that, when necessary, it might 
be used to invalidate the imputations to which those facts give 
color. This consideration terminated my doubts. I do not think 
that a disclosure is necessary at this moment ; but I fear such a 
moment will arrive. Whether I shall then be alive, or in capacity 
to give testimony, is so uncertain, that, in order to avoid the risk 
of either, I shall now reduce it to writing, and commit it to your 
care and discretion, cle bene esse, as the lawyers say." 
" Some time before the Address appeared, Colonel (afterwards 
General) Hamilton informed me, that he had received a letter 
from President Washington, and with it the draught of a Fare- 
well Address, which the President had prepared, and on which 
he requested our opinion. He then proposed that we should fix a 
day for an interview at my house on the subject. A day was ac- 
cordingly appointed. On that day Colonel Hamilton attended. 
He observed to me, in words to this effect : that after having read 
and examined the draught, it appeared to him to be susceptible of 
improvement — that he thought the easiest and best way was to 
leave the draught untouched and in its fair state, and to write the 
whole over, with such amendments, alterations, and corrections as 
he thought were advisable, and that he had done so. He then 
proposed to read it, and to make it the subject of our considera- 
tion. This being agreed upon, he read it ; and we proceeded 
deliberately to discuss and consider it, paragraph by paragraph, 
until the whole met with our mutual approbation. Some amend- 
ments were made during the interview, but none of much impor- 
tance. Although this business had not been hastily despatched, 
yet aware of the consequence of such a paper, I suggested the 
giving it a further critical examination ; but he declined it, say- 



78 MR. jay's letter to judge peters. 

" ing that lie was pressed for time, and was anxious to return the 
" draught to the President without delay. It afterward occurred to 
1 ■ me, that a certain proposition was expressed in terms too general 
" and unqualified, and I hinted it in a letter to the President." 

" As the business took the course above mentioned, a recurrence 
" to the draught was unnecessary, and it was not read. There was 
" this advantage in the course pursued, — the President's draught 
" remained (as delicacy required) fair, and not obscured by inter- 
" lineations, &c. By comparing it with the paper sent with it, he 
" would immediately observe the particular emendations and correc- 
" tions that were proposed, and would find them standing in their 
" intended places. Hence he was enabled to review and decide on 
" the whole matter, with much greater clearness and facility than 
" if he had received them in separate and detached notes, and with 
" detailed references to the pages and lines where they were advised 
" to be introduced." 



All this occurred, we must bear in mind, " some time be- 
" fore the Address appeared" (the 19th September). It can 
hardly be supposed, that what Mr. Jay, after the lapse of 
fifteen years, still recollected as some time, was less than some 
iveeks, in conformity with the date of Hamilton's letter of 
the 10th of August. 

I do not in this place pause to make a commentary upon 
the earlier part of this letter, the ironical part of it espe- 
cially ; nor upon that singular misconception of Washington's 
true greatness, which made him accept from the hands of 
Madison, and afterwards tenaciously hold to, those very ex- 
pressions, which Mr. Jay supposed that no man living, who 
had Washington's esteem, would have presented to him, 
and which he therefore regarded as presumptive evidence 
that the writing which contained them could have been 



MR. JAY'S LETTER TO JUDGE PETERS. 79 

written by Washington only. I cannot, however, avoid 
remarking at this time, that this first elaborate argument 
against the suggestion that Washington had received assist- 
ance in the composition of the Farewell Address, so far as 
it was founded upon presumption from the language of that 
Address, or from the character of Washington, is over- 
thrown by facts then existing, though unknown to Mr. Jay, 
and which are now perfectly clear and plain ; and so far as 
it was founded on the facts of that interview between Ham- 
ilton and Jay, is superseded by his own now manifest mis- 
take, in supposing that a part of the case in regard to the 
formation of the Farewell Address, was the whole. I will 
restrict my use of the paper in this place, however, to the 
concluding part of the extract, or rather to Mr. Sparks's 
inference from it, as he quotes it in his Appendix to the 
twelfth volume of Washington. 

It is irrefragably deducible from this statement, supposing 
Mr. Jay's recollections of the interview to have been per- 
fectly accurate, after the lapse of fifteen years, that the 
paper which Hamilton read to him was Washington's 
draught, " corrected upon the general plan of it," which Ha- 
milton, in his letter of 5th July, said he should prepare and 
send forward. Washington's draught, Mr. Jay says, was 
not read at that time, the course of the business having 
made a recurrence to it unnecessary ; which course Mr. 
Jay describes, as being that of reading from another paper, 
the draught including the particular emendations and cor- 
rections that were proposed, and which emendations and 
corrections, by comparing his draught with this paper, 
Washington would find standing in their proper places. 

After copying, in his Appendix to the twelfth volume of 



80 MR. SPARKS'S REMARKS UPON IT. 

Washington's Writings, this portion of Jay's letter, Mr. 
Sparks says: — 

" It may be observed, that Mr. Jay does not profess to have seen 
" Washington's first draught ; and, of course, he could not know 
" what alterations and amendments had been made by Hamilton. 
" He evidently received the impression, however, that the transcript 
" was in its matter essentially the same as the original." 

The fact that Washington's draught was not read at that 
interview, is very clearly stated in Mr. Jay's letter ; though 
there is nothing in the letter which professes that Mr. Jay 
had not seen the draught, nor which implies that the 
draught was absent. The contrary would be implied, both 
from the office to be performed by the parties, and by the 
general context of Mr. Jay's letter. From Mr. Jay's not 
catching the name at the foot of the paper, he certainly did 
not read it ; for the name was perfectly visible under the line 
which erased it, as well as the words crossed by lines above. 
It is not material whether Mr. Jay received the impression 
that the transcript was in its matter essentially the same as 
the original, or not ; though I think there is not a word in 
the letter that implies such an impression, and it must have 
been a remarkable correction and emendation, if the tran- 
script was in its matfer essentially the same as the original. 
But this is of no importance. The material conclusion of 
Mr. Sparks is, that Mr. Jay could not know what alterations 
and amendments had been made by Hamilton. This in- 
ference is not quite just to Mr. Jay, nor is it quite logical, 
from the premises which Mr. Jay states ; for the alterations 
and amendments which had been made by Hamilton in 



THE SUBJECT OF THE INTERVIEW. 81 

transcribing it, might have been known by marks on the 
transcript, or by Hamilton's manner of reading it or com- 
menting upon it; and in one of these ways it must have 
been known, or Mr. Jay would have omitted to perform the 
office which Hamilton, in Washington's behalf, had re- 
quested of him, — that of giving an opinion upon the draught 
which " the President had prepared." Without some such 
knowledge of the draught, indeed without marks of some 
kind on the transcript or on the draught, it is difficult to 
understand how Mr. Jay could write as he does, that " by 
" comparing it (the President's draught) with the paper 
" sent with it, he (the President) would immediately observe 
" the particular emendations and corrections that were pro- 
" posed, and would find them standing in their intended 
"places. Hence he was enabled to review and to decide on 
" the whole matter with much greater clearness and facility, 
" than if he had received them in separate and detached 
" notes, and with detailed references to the pages and lines 
" where they were advised to be introduced." What clear- 
ness and facility, and immediate observation, could Mr. Jay 
have been able to predicate of alterations and amendments 
to a draught of which he knew nothing, directly or indi- 
rectly, wrought moreover into the body of the transcript, 
without anything in original or transcript to guide to them % 
Or how could he know that they would be discovered, except 
by a laborious collation of every part of Washington's 
draught with every part of the transcript 1 It seems to be a 
great injustice to Mr. Jay, to suppose that he could not know 
what alterations and amendments Hamilton had made ; for 
this is saying that he had only heard the transcript read, 
and did not know what part was Washington's, and what 



82 ORIGINAL DRAUGHT OF WASHINGTON 

Hamilton's, though the very point of reference to him, for 
the joint opinion of Hamilton and himself, was Washington's 
draught, which was submitted to them for their opinion. 

These remarks may seem to be superfluous ; for, whether 
accurate or inaccurate, they have little bearing on the main 
point. But in reading this portion of Mr. Sparks's note on 
the Farewell Address, I have been at some loss to know, 
why the omission to read " the President's draught," at that 
interview, and this inability of Mr. Jay to know what the 
alterations and amendments of Hamilton were, are empha- 
sized by Mr. Sparks ; and whether it implies a doubt on the 
part of Mr. Sparks, that the draught sent by Washington to 
Hamilton on the 15th May was before Mr. Jay at that in- 
terview, or was the same paper which contained the quo- 
tation of Madison's draught and the " Hints, or Heads of 
" Topics," or was something else, unknown to Mr. Sparks, 
leaving the character of that draught by Washington a 
matter of still impenetrable obscurity. 

Whatever may have been the state of Mr. Sparks's 
opinion, when he wrote his remarks upon the Farewell 
Address in the twelfth volume of Washington's Writings, 
I have little doubt that, with the fuller information that has 
since appeared, he cannot but be at present of the opinion that 
Madison's draught and the " Hints, or Heads of Topics," with 
the beginning and conclusion I have referred to, did consti- 
tute the draught which Washington sent to Hamilton with 
the letter of the 15th May. The fact, without any reason- 
able doubt, is so ; and that what purported to be the draught 
of Washington, was before Hamilton and Jay at the time of 
that interview, cannot be seriously questioned by anybody. 

That is the important fact, that Washington's own 



THE SUBJECT OF THE INTERVIEW. 83 

draught was the subject that was before them, with Hamil- 
ton's corrections of that draught ; and that no other draught 
was before them. Washington's draught, and Hamilton's 
transcript of that draught with corrections, were the two 
matters before them, if they were two matters ; or the tran- 
script of Washington's draught with Hamilton's corrections, 
was the one matter before them, if it was one matter. And 
nothing else was before them. And this settles entirely the 
relevancy of Mr. Jay's letter. 

Mr. Jay was perfectly ignorant at that time, and probably 
to the end of his valuable life, that any original draught of 
a Farewell Address by Hamilton was thought of, by either 
Washington or Hamilton; and as much so, of course, of 
the fact, that a copy of such a draught had been sent by 
Hamilton to Washington, before the time of that interview. 
The fact of such a draught by Hamilton, concerned himself 
as well as Washington. It was a matter still pending. It 
had no bearing upon the matter which concerned Wash- 
ington only, to wit, his own draught, for the improvement 
of which Hamilton, under Washington's authority, asked 
the conference with Mr. Jay. Hamilton, therefore, appears 
not to have confided that independent matter to Mr. Jay. 
It is from Mr. Jay's ignorance of this, and of some other cir- 
cumstances, that his defective view of the question of the 
Farewell Address proceeded, as will be further shown here- 
after. 

Recurring now to the two leading papers, Washington's 
preparatory draught and Hamilton's original draught, with- 
out at present adverting to Hamilton's amendment and 
revision of his own draught, I will so far anticipate the con- 
clusion that may be drawn from a fuller view of the whole 



84 GENERAL RELATION TO THE FAREWELL ADDRESS 

matter, as to state my apprehension of the general relation 
which they bear to the finished Farewell Address. An ana- 
lysis of Hamilton's abstract and original draught hereafter 
will demonstrate it. 

The fundamental or radical thoughts of the Farewell 
Address appear in Washington's preparatory draught, and 
without reference to plan or style, and with little obligation 
otherwise to Madison's draught, which followed Washing- 
ton's outline, they were originally and substantially Wash- 
ington's. The selection of those thoughts was his. The 
responsibility for them was his. The individuality, for use 
in the Farewell Address, was his. In what was most strictly 
personal to him, the language of the preparatory draught 
was frequently, and as often as it could be, brought into the 
body of Hamilton's draught, and from that into the Address. 
In other instances, also, the language of Washington was to 
some extent incorporated with the thoughts. On the other 
hand, the expurgation of Washington's draught was Hamil- 
ton's. The plan of the Farewell Address was that of Hamil- 
ton's original draught. The central and dominant thought 
of the political part of his draught, and of that Address, was 
selected by him from Washington's thoughts, and made the 
governing principle of the whole. The bearing of other 
thoughts upon that centre was devised by him, and the 
separate suggestions which appeared in various places in 
Washington's draught, Hamilton developed and augmented, 
and worked into his draught ; and he sustained them, not in 
the direct logical form, but with collateral illustrations and 
supports of his own, by which he combined and justified the 
thoughts of Washington, and made the whole of this por- 
tion of the Address which followed his draught, as much an 



or Washington's draught and Hamilton's draught. 85 

argument, as Washington's draught had made it a decla- 
ration of his political faith. 

It is unnecessary to speak of Hamilton's intellectual capa- 
city for the part of the work that was assigned to him ; but 
his special qualification for it was moral, as much as it was 
intellectual. It was his full sympathy with Washington in 
both his personal and political aspirations. He knew better 
than any man what Washington felt and thought, and as 
well as any man what Washington ought to feel on the 
occasion, both as a President and as a man ; and he knew 
better than Washington what Washington ought to say, and 
what he ought to suppress, in matters which had person- 
ally wronged him. Perhaps any man of sense and discretion 
is a better judge in this last particular than the party him- 
self; but Hamilton's special fitness as an adviser in such a 
matter, sprang from his true conception of Washington's 
greatness, from sympathy with his glory, from a perfect 
apprehension of the estimate which the world had formed 
of him, from accordance with him as to both the men and 
the policy that were opposed to him, and as to the proper 
principles of administration under the Constitution; while, 
at the same time, Hamilton himself was free from every 
particle of rivalry or competition with the great chief of the 
country, and supremely elevated above the desire or thought 
of vindicating any wrongs of his own, through the resent- 
ments, in the same direction, of any person whatever. 

Two men were never better fitted for just such a joint 
work ; fitted by different, and even by contrasting, qualities, 
and by reciprocal trust and respect. 

Hamilton habitually approved Washington's great pur- 
poses, and generally his suggestions made upon deliberate 



86 KESPECTIVE QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WORK, 

consideration. Washington, on the other hand, approved 
what Hamilton's constructive as well as analytical mind 
built up or developed from Washington's suggestions, or 
corrected by wise qualifications ; and ceased to approve even 
a suggestion of his own, after Hamilton had shown that it 
was out of place in the position given to it, or out of parallel 
or keeping with the ideal which Washington's admirers 
throughout the world had formed of him. Hamilton was 
slow, therefore, to consent to Washington's abating any por- 
tion of his claims through an excessive modesty, or impairing 
them by condescending to rebuke the invectives which had 
irritated him, as he knew him to be far above their reach on 
the great theatre of the world ; though he was ready to be 
overruled where Washington was to speak personally ; and 
probably felt himself to be overruled, in retaining certain 
parts of Mr. Madison's language. 

Washington's practical and executive life — that great pre- 
paration of his virtues for the destiny that awaited him — took 
him away in early youth from long scholastic training in 
letters, and made them of secondary pursuit with him after- 
wards. He was not addicted to complex or formal compo- 
sition, though he wrote well and effectively. The seeds of 
all sound political and moral action were in him, and they 
grew and expanded with his position, until it became the 
highest in the country ; and his also was a singularly wise 
judgment to apply the work of another in aid of his own 
knowledge or design ; but suggestiveness and facility were 
not the most striking properties of his mind. Hamilton, on 
the other hand, strenuously cultivated from his youth, his 
remarkable genius for speculative inquiry, for political and 
legal argument, and for arrangement and order in the mar- 



OF THE TWO PARTIES. 87 

shalling of his thoughts for either persuasion or demonstra- 
tion. His was the germinating, arranging, and exhibitive 
mind, the mind to make a structure from the separate mate- 
rials provided by the mind of Washington ; but no structure 
that Hamilton or any one could raise, was beyond the accu- 
rate survey and scrutiny of Washington, or his ability to 
appreciate the nature and degree of the connection, depen- 
dency, and coherence of the parts. Such was the adaptation 
of Washington and Hamilton to the work of the Farewell 
Address. 

Hamilton's original draught, as printed in the seventh 
volume of his Works, — of which a corrected copy was sent 
to Washington on the 30th July, 1796, — is the starting- 
point in the collation and comparison of Hamilton's work, 
with the Farewell Address. The draught was altogether 
Hamilton's preparation, and there can be no doubt of the 
genuineness and authenticity of this document. The ori- 
ginal, in his handwriting, is deposited in the Department of 
State. The copy in his Works has been published under 
the authority of Congress. It is printed in such a manner 
as, by reference to words and sentences at the foot of the 
pages, to indicate what are called in the first note, " the 
"final alterations in this draught," which does not mean 
the final alterations, from the corrected copy sent to Washing- 
ton the 30th July, nor from the revision sent to Washington 
on the 6th September ; but the final alterations in this, the 
original draught, before it was amended and sent to Wash- 
ington, on the 30th July. 

The comparison of the Farewell Address must, in the 
first instance, be made with this draught. The revision of 
the draught, or, as Hamilton expressed it in his letter to 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF 



Washington of 5th September, " the draught corrected 
" agreeably to your intimations," was sent to Washington 
on the 6th September, having been returned by Washington 
to Hamilton for revision, at his request, on the 25th August. 
It was not found, Mr. Sparks says, among the papers of 
Washington. Doubtless Mr. Sparks has never seen it. It 
may, or may not, appear hereafter. 

The disappearance of this paper is remarkable. It is the 
only paper which relates to the formation of the Farewell 
Address, that has disappeared from the papers of Wash- 
ington on this head, from the year 1792. All the other 
papers, it will be seen, came into the hands of Mr. Sparks, 
the editor of Washington's Writings. There were several 
of them, without including the letters of Madison or 
Hamilton ; — Madison's draught, Washington's copy of that 
draught, his own paper, called by Mr. Sparks " Hints, or 
" Heads of Topics," Washington's completed paper sent to 
Hamilton, and Hamilton's correction of that paper by incorpo- 
ration of amendments. They were all found among the papers 
of Washington. This copy of Hamilton's original draught, 
his revision, is acknowledged by Washington, commented 
upon by him several times by letter, was returned by Wash- 
ington to Hamilton, sent back to Washington, after revision, 
by Hamilton, according to Washington's urgent request, for 
the purpose of being immediately copied and sent to the 
press ; and though its safe arrival does not, from any letter 
that remains, appear to have been expressly acknowledged 
by Washington, the short clause on Education prepared by 
Hamilton at Washington's instance, expressly mentioned by 
Hamilton as having been made in the revision, and which 
appears in Washington's Farewell Address, in the place which 



Hamilton's amended and revised draught. 89 

Washington pointed ont in Hamilton's copy where it might 
conveniently come in, — that little clause, if every other proof 
had failed, is as full a letter of acknowledgment that the 
revision had come back safely to Washington's hands, as the 
most formal receipt which Washington could have signed. 
All these papers were probably kept together by Wash- 
ington in one place, after the Farewell Address was pub- 
lished. We know Washington's extraordinary habits of 
order and care in the arrangement and preservation of his 
papers. His editor has shown it, in the preface to his work. 
All the other papers I have described, remained at his death ; 
and they passed into the possession of his nephew and 
legatee, Bushrod Washington, one of the most pure, single- 
minded, conscientious, and virtuous men, whom this or any 
other country has produced. All the papers of Washington 
were his special bequest to this nephew, the venerated 
Judge of the Supreme Court, and of the Circuit Court of 
the United States for the District of Pennsylvania. He 
died in Philadelphia, on the 26th of November, 1829; and 
four or five years before that time, he had placed in the 
hands of Mr. Sparks the mass of Washington's papers, for 
the preparation of an edition of Washington's Writings. 

No person upon earth, who knew Bushrod Washington, 
can possibly believe that such a paper as Hamilton's draught, 
or any other important paper in Washington's cabinet at 
Mount Vernon, could have been separated or displaced from 
the mass by him, or with his consent, for the purpose of 
concealment. It is equally impossible that it could have 
been so separated and put aside by Mr. Sparks, or with his 
consent. I have the fullest faith, and so must every one 
have, who knows the character of Mr. Sparks, that this 



90 DISAPPEARANCE OF HAMILTON'S 

paper did not come into his possession. He has stated to 
that effect, in a written list of the papers appertaining to 
the Farewell Address, which was prepared several years 
since, a copy of which I have seen. 

It would be dangerous, and is quite unnecessary, to 
indulge in any speculations concerning the loss or displace- 
ment of this paper. I should be willing to suppose it to 
have been altogether an accident ; and so far as imputations 
from me are concerned, it must be considered as so regarded 
on my part ; but there is an intimation (as Mr. Jay's reply 
states it) in Judge Peters's letter to Mr. Jay of the 14th 
March, 1811, that there were two copies of the Farewell 
Address, in Hamilton's handwriting, of which Judge Peters 
had been recently informed, — one among the papers of 
General Hamilton, and another in the possession of a 
certain person, whose name is not mentioned. As the only 
two papers in Hamilton's handwriting, which could purport 
to be copies of the Farewell Address, were the original 
draught of Hamilton, and the copy sent to Washington, 
namely, the paper now in question, there may doubtless be, 
in this intimation, a reference to the missing paper. But it 
is useless to attempt to follow it out, with so imperfect a 
light, which possibly may also be a deceptive one. One 
remark, and one only, will suffice, before I proceed to other 
matters. 

The missing paper could not have been displaced or taken 
with a view to assist the claims of Hamilton or his family 
to the authorship of the Farewell Address. If there was 
any consciousness in regard to the question of authorship, 
by the person who took possession of it, the paper would 
have been produced before this, if it had been of a nature to 



AMENDED AND REVISED DRAUGHT. 91 

defeat those claims ; and no friend to Hamilton's claims 
would have suppressed it, if it had been found to make 
those claims perfectly demonstrative without the trouble of 
argument. 

One consequence of the absence of this revision must be 
kept in mind, — and it is quite an important one, unless it 
can be supplied to some extent, as it probably can be. 
As the original draught of Hamilton was " considerably 
" amended," as well as revised and corrected by him, and as 
Washington, also, altered some of the words of the revision, 
we have no absolute assurance that the words of the Fare- 
well Address which are not found in the original draught, 
were contained in Hamilton's amended copy, or in his 
revision of it; nor, on the other hand, that they were 
placed in the Farewell Address by Washington himself. 
And the like must be said of any part of the original 
draught, which is not found in the Farewell Address. We 
have no absolute assurance that such part was struck out by 
Hamilton, in his amended copy, or in the revision ; for it 
may have been struck out by Washington after the revision 
came to his hands. Either Hamilton or Washington may 
have done it. Which of them did it, will be a question of 
probabilities, when we look at the differences, as shown in 
the light of Washington's autograph Address. The main 
question of author ship, "in the literary sense, will not however 
be sensibly affected by the absence of Hamilton's revision. 

In comparing the original draught of Hamilton with the 
Farewell Address, which the reader must to a great degree 
do for himself, the characteristics of identity in mechanism 
and substance will be found to be very strong in the follow- 
ing particulars : 1. The length or extent of each is about the 



92 COMPARISON OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT 

same, and the material almost wholly the same. The extent, 
about nineteen printed pages, largely exceeds any draught 
of Washington that consisted only of the materials noticed 
in Mr. Sparks's Appendix, or were sent by Washington to 
Hamilton with his letter of 15th May. It exceeds them 
more than twofold, which is quite sufficient to account for 
Washington's remark in his letter of 10 th August: "the 
" doubt that occurs at first view is the length of it for a 
" newspaper publication." 2. The number of paragraphs is 
about the same. In the Farewell Address they are fifty- 
one ; in the, original draught they are fifty. But there have 
been a few divisions and consolidations of original paragraphs 
of the Farewell Address, as it stands in Washington's Works, 
and one paragraph has certainly been added by Hamilton in 
his revision, and two or three by him, or by Washington. 
The final result is, that the paragraphs are still about the 
same in number. 3. And this is material : the order or col- 
location of paragraphs, and the subjects of them, from the 
beginning to the end of the two papers, the original draught 
and the Farewell Address, is one and, the same, making 
allowance for the division and consolidation of paragraphs 
before named, and the expansion in two instances. There 
is no transposition of the order that we have detected, except 
in a partial degree, in a single instance, where part of a para- 
graph at the end of page 576 and the beginning of page 577 of 
the original draught in the seventh volume of Hamilton's 
Works, is wrought into the last two clauses of the Farewell 
Address. In more than twenty instances the paragraphs in the 
Farewell Address begin with the identical words of the corres- 
ponding paragraphs in the draught, treating of the same sub- 
jects in almost the same language to the close. In at least nine 



WITH FAREWELL ADDRESS. 93 

other instances, a word at the beginning of a paragraph in 
the draught is changed in the Farewell Address ; as essen- 
tially for substantially ; cherish good faith, for observe good 
faith ; towards the execution, for in the execution ; in like 
manner, for so liheioise ; why should we forego, for why forego ; 
in "reference to the present war of Europe, for in relation to the 
subsisting war in Europe ; after deliberate consideration, for 
after deliberate examination ; to the duration and efficacy of 
your Union, for to the efficacy and permanency of your Union ; 
I have already observed, for I have already intimated. In all 
these instances the corresponding paragraphs proceed with 
the same subject, and generally in the same language to the 
close. Such differences are a conclusive proof of origin, by- 
uniform limitation of change, along with uniform continu- 
ation of subject, and generally of words, without any change. 
This conformity in subject and language may be illustrated 
by a paragraph, taken as an instance, from the body of the 
Farewell Address, being the sixteenth paragraph of that 
Address, and the nineteenth of Hamilton's original draught, 
six of Hamilton's previous paragraphs having been consoli- 
dated in three in the Address, one having been divided into 
two, and one altogether omitted. 

HAMILTON. WASHINGTON". 

ORIGINAL DRAUGHT. FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

To the duration and efficacy of your To the efficacy and permanency of your 
Union, a government extending over the Union, a government for the whole is in- 
whole is indispensable. No alliances, how- dispensable. No alliances, however strict 
ever strict between the parts, could be between the parts, can be an adequate 
an adequate substitute. These could substitute ; they must inevitably experi- 
not fail to be liable to the infractions ence the infractions and interruptions 
and interruptions which all alliances in which all alliances in all times have ex- 



94 



PARALLEL PARAGRAPH IN EACH. 



all times have suffered. Sensible of this 
important truth, you have lately esta- 
blished a Constitution of general govern- 
ment, better calculated than the former 
for an intimate union, aud more adequate 
to the duration of your common concerns. 
This government, the offspring of your 
own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, 
completely free in its principles, in the 
distribution of its powers, uniting energy 
with safety, and containing in itself a 
provision for its own amendment, is well 
entitled to your confidence and support. 
Respect for its authority, compliance 
with its laws, acquiescence in its mea- 
sures, are duties dictated by the funda- 
mental maxims of true liberty. The 
basis of our political systems is the right 
of the people to make and to alter their 
constitutions of government. But the 
Constitution for the time, and until 
changed by an explicit and authentic 
act of the whole people, is sacredly bind- 
ing upon all. The very idea of the right 
and power of the people to establish go- 
vernment, presupposes the duty of every 
individual to obey the established govern- 
ment. — Hamilton's Works, vol. vi, p. 582. 



perienced. Sensible of this momentous 
truth, you have improved upon your first 
essay by the adoption of a Constitution 
of government better calculated than 
your former for an intimate union, and 
for the efficacious management of your 
common concerns. This government, the 
offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced 
and unawed, adopted upon full investi- 
gation and mature deliberation, com- 
pletely free in its principles, in the dis- 
tribution of its powers, uniting security 
with energy, and containing within itself 
a provision for its own amendment, has 
a just claim to your confidence and your 
support. Respect for its authority, com- 
pliance with its laws, acquiescence in its 
measures, are duties enjoined by the fun- 
damental maxims of true liberty. The 
basis of our political system is the right 
of the people to make and to alter their 
constitutions of government. But the 
Constitution which at any time exists, 
till changed by an explicit and authentic 
act of the whole people, is sacredly obli- 
gatory upon all. The very idea of the 
power and the right of the people to esta- 
blish government, presupposes the duty of 
every individual to obey the established 
government. — Washington s Writings, 
vol. xii, p. 222. 



It is not speaking too strongly to say that the third cha- 
racteristic I have mentioned, is decisive. It is decisive of 
the origin of the Farewell Address, whatever may have been 
the verbal alterations of Hamilton's original draught, or of 
Hamilton's revision of that draught, or by Washington's 



BEARING ON QUESTION OF ORIGIN. 95 

autograph copy — even attributing all the changes to Wash- 
ington, and none of them to Hamilton's correction and 
revision. If a paper of fifty paragraphs is found thus to 
conform to a paper that preceded it, and especially to one 
that was written to be the exemplar of it, in corresponding 
paragraphs, identical subjects and thoughts, and closely in 
language, though with an occasional difference in words, 
every reasonable person must say that the first paper was 
the source of the second. 

Mr. Babbidge, in the ninth Bridgewater Treatise, has ex- 
pressed mathematically, the proportional value of all human 
experience against a miracle, — Mr. Hume's theory, — as being 
two hundred thousand millions against one ; and at the same 
time has shown by the same method, that the improbabilities 
of error in the agreement of six independent witnesses of 
good character, unknown to, or without collusion with, each 
other, and not deceived respectively more than once in a 
hundred times, and testifying to the restoration to life of a 
dead man, are fivefold as great, that is to say, a million 
millions against one. We have at least the benefit of the 
Humean proportional improbability against the preparation 
by one man of such a paper as the Farewell Address, with- 
out following the preceding paper written by another man ; 
for certainly all human experience is against it. But, far 
beyond that, we have nearly fifty paragraphs as witnesses, 
testifying exactly in the same direction; and, considering 
the perhaps infinite variety of thoughts, language, taste, and 
arrangement in the written compositions of different men 
from the same theme, we may be entitled to say, that no 
finite succession of numbers can express the true extent of 
the improbability of such a correspondence as exists be- 



96 SOURCES OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 

tween the Farewell Address and Hamilton's original 
draught, without the copying of the one, either mediately 
or immediately, from the other. 

The Farewell Address, if thus compared with Hamilton's 
original draught, will be found to be a transcript of the 
draught, with verbal corrections, and the omission of certain 
clauses, adding three or four short clauses at the most — 
alterations by Hamilton, or by Washington, or partly by 
one, and partly by the other. 

This review of the two structures, throws us back to the 
source or sources of Hamilton's original draught. If Ham- 
ilton was the author of his original draught, that is to say, 
the composer and writer of it, and the Farewell Address 
was a transcript of that draught with verbal corrections, and 
a clause or two struck out or added, then Hamilton was in 
the same sense the composer and writer of the Farewell 
Address. 

But was Hamilton the composer and writer of his original 
draught 1 This is a perfectly proper question, and a sensible 
one, also ; for a writer may have copied and not composed 
the paper, which another has followed, or he may have taken 
frequent and large sentences from the works of other men, 
and mechanically followed their plan and arrangement in all 
points. He may have formed his own paper to a great 
extent from antecedent materials, giving it very little of his 
own, so that he is only the compiler of the paper. 

There exist authentic materials for answering this question 
with very considerable certainty, and which answer will do 
Washington full justice, and Madison also all the justice that 
can be claimed for him. That justice is to be derived through 
Washington's preparatory draught — the preserved paper. 



Hamilton's abstract of points. 97 

Hamilton, with the just view of making the paper he was 
about to write, conform to the sentiments of Washington, 
either expressed or understood, and meaning also to produce 
a paper that should by its topics, and the order of their de- 
velopment, engage and impress the minds of patriotic and 
wise men throughout the country, prepared an " abstract of 
" points to form an Address," which is printed in the seventh 
volume of his published Works, page 570 ; and this paper 
has such a clear and important bearing upon the question of 
authorship, and has received so little attention from any one 
heretofore in this relation, that it must have the more of it 
at this time. 

The points or divisions of matter are twenty-three in 
number, distinguished by Roman numerals. 

The first ten of these divisions, without any subdivisions 
among them, embrace the expression of Washington's sen- 
timents and feelings in regard to the announcement of his 
intention to retire ; his previous hope, that long ere this it 
would have been in his power to do so ; and that he had 
nearly come to a final resolution in the year 1792 to do it, 
but had been dissuaded from it by the peculiar situation of 
affairs, and the advice of confidential friends ; his acqui- 
escence at that time in a further election, in hopes that a 
year or two longer would have enabled him to withdraw ; 
but that a continuance of causes had delayed it till now, 
when the position of our country, abroad and at home, jus- 
tified him in pursuing his inclination : and that in doing it, 
he had not been unmindful of his relation as a dutiful citizen 
to his country, nor was he now influenced by the slightest di- 
minution of zeal for its interest, or gratitude for its past kind- 
ness, but by a belief that the step was compatible with both. 

7 



98 HAMILTON'S ABSTRACT OF POINTS. 

These sentiments occupy the first four divisions, by which 
it may be seen how carefully Hamilton prepared himself to 
carry the spirit of Washington, even in minute personal par- 
ticulars, into the Address. 

Still continuing the writer's preparation of heads to intro- 
duce like particulars, the fifth head adverts to the fact that 
the impressions under which Washington first accepted the 
office were explained on the proper occasion : the sixth, ' that 
' in the execution of it, he had contributed the best exertions 
6 of a very fallible judgment, anticipated his insufficiency, 
6 experienced his disqualifications for the difficult trust, and 
' every day a stronger sentiment from that cause to yield the 
' place. Advance into the decline of life, every day more sen- 
' sible of weight of years, of the necessity of repose, of the 
' duty to seek retirement,' &c. " Add, seventh, It will be 
" among the purest enjoyments which can sweeten the rem- 
" nant of his days, to partake, in a private station, in the 
" midst of his fellow-citizens, the laws of a free government, 
" the ultimate object of his cares and wishes." 

The eighth division records the single word " Rotation ;" 
a subject introduced into Madison's draught at Washington's 
suggestion. The ninth, that " in contemplating the moment 
" of retreat, he cannot forbear to express his deep acknow- 
" ledgments and debt of gratitude for the many honors con- 
" f erred on him — the steady confidence which, even amidst 
" discouraging scenes and efforts to poison its source, has 
" adhered to support him, and enabled him to be useful — 
44 marking, if well placed, the virtue and wisdom of his 
" countrymen. All the return he can now make must be in 
" the vows he will carry with him in his retirement : 1st. For 
" a continuance of the Divine beneficence to the country. 



Hamilton's abstract of points. 99 

" 2d. For the perpetuity of their union and brotherly affec- 
" tion — for a good administration insured by a happy union 
" of watchfulness and confidence. 3d. That happiness of 
" people under auspices of liberty may be complete. 4th. 
" That by a prudent use of the blessing, they may recom- 
" mend it to the affection, the praise, and the adoption of 
" every nation yet a stranger to it." 

The tenth is as follows : u Perhaps here we ought to end. 
" But an unconquerable solicitude for the happiness of his 
44 country will not permit him to leave the scene, without 
44 availing himself of whatever confidence may remain in 
44 him to strengthen some sentiments which he believes to be 
44 essential to their happiness, and to recommend some rules 
44 of conduct, the importance of which his own experience 
44 has more than ever impressed on him." 

Thus far these sentiments in the abstract are gleaned from 
the draught of Madison, who in part took them from the 
letter of Washington, and in part originated them under his 
instructions ; but they are much more Madison's than they 
are Washington's in point of origin ; and having been adopted 
by Washington in his draught, Hamilton has followed them, 
and except in one point, hereafter to be noted, a point sug- 
gested by Washington in his letter to Madison, has exhausted 
Madison's draught, modified some of his expressions, and 
placed them in the abstract in an order in some respects 
Hamilton's own. They are subsequently introduced at the 
commencement of Hamilton's draught, in language some- 
thing more easy and fluent, though equally plain, omitting 
one head altogether, the head of rotation in office, and 
changing one phrase of some sharpness responsive to Wash- 
ington's sensibility to invective, 44 amidst discouraging scenes 



100 Hamilton's abstract of points. 

" and efforts to poison its source," into " situations in which 
" not unfrequently want of success has seconded the criti- 
" cisms of malevolence ;" and thus abating the pungency of 
the phrase in the abstract. 

The effort to keep from the Address every pointed refe- 
rence to the political party maltreatment which Washington 
thought he had received, is conspicuous on the part of Ham- 
ilton throughout, his noble design being to make it speak a 
language that was both generous and catholic, and which 
would meet with acceptance at all future time by wise and 
good men. Rotation — Hamilton leaves out altogether from 
his draught, thinking, no doubt, though Madison introduced 
it upon Washington's qualified suggestion, or perhaps un- 
qualified, if the original letter to Madison is a truer reading 
than that of Mr. Sparks,* that mere rotation, without regard 
to circumstances, was unreasonable and restrictive of the 
Constitution ; and that to attempt to state the circumstances, 
would lead to suppositions and discriminations which would 
not obtain general assent. In such matters the subsequent 
surrender by Washington of personal feelings and personal 
predilection, shows both the soundness of his judgment and 
the nobleness of his spirit. Even the word " malevolent" has 
been struck from the Address, either by Hamilton in his 
corrected copy, or in his revision, or by Washington himself. 

After these heads of the abstract, come the great heads of 
the work, with the subdivisions of some of them ; and it is 
here that the public principles of the Address begin to 
assume their order, and to receive their analysis. 

The central thought and sentiment of the piece is the 

* See p. 19, supra. 



Hamilton's abstract of points. 101 

Union, which is the eleventh head; and from this all subse- 
quent thoughts radiate, and it may be said, with equal truth, 
that they all converge to it, illustrate its value, and tend to 
corroborate it. " It is the rock of their salvation; presenting 
" summarily these ideas: 1. Strength and greater security 
" from external danger. 2. Internal peace, and avoiding 
" the necessity of establishments dangerous to liberty. 3. 
" Avoids the effect of foreign intrigue. 4. Breaks the force of 
" factions, by rendering combinations more difficult. " The 
great natural bond of Union, — what may almost be called 
the religion of its nature, is selected by the abstract as the 
first matter to be developed — " the fitness of the parts for 
" each other by their very discriminations. 1. The North, 
" by its capacity for maritime strength and manufacture. 
" 2. The agricultural South furnishing materials, and re- 
" quiring those protections. The Atlantic board to the 
" western country by the strong interests of peace, and the 
" western by the necessity of Atlantic maritime protection. 
" Cannot be sure of their great outlet otherwise — cannot 
" trust a foreign connection. Solid interests invite to Union. 
" Speculations of difficulty of government ought not to be 
" indulged, nor momentary jealousies — lead to impatience. 
" Faction and individual ambition are the only advisers of 
" disunion :" and then, noting for remembrance the jea- 
lousies existing at that time in the West, in regard to the 
Mississippi and its outlet, and the late treaty with Spain, 
which tended to allay them, it repeats, " Let confidence be 
" cherished ; let the recent experience of the West be a 
" lesson against impatience and distrust." 

The twelfth is the " actual government," the government 
which the Constitution provides for the Union. " Cherish 



102 . Hamilton's abstract of points. 

" the actual government. It is the government of our own 
" choice — free in its principles, the guardian of our common 
" rights, the patron of our common interests, and containing 
" within itself a provision for its own amendment. But let 
" that provision be cautiously used — not abused ; changing 
" only, in any material points, as experience shall direct ; 
" neither indulging speculations of too much or too little 
" force in the system, and remembering always the extent of 
44 our country. Time and habit of great consequence to every 
" government, of whatever structure. Discourage the spirit 
" of faction, the bane of free government ; and particularly 
" avoid founding it on geographical discriminations. Discoun- 
" tenance slander of public men. Let the departments of 
44 government avoid interfering and mutual encroachments." 

These being the guiding notes for a comprehensive state- 
ment of the particular advantages of the government which 
the Constitution had provided, of the means of amending 
cautiously its defects, when ascertained, and of the dangers 
which might threaten it, founded on geographical discri- 
minations, or promoted by encroachments of the depart- 
ments on each other, the abstract proceeds with heads, to 
introduce such admonitions as concern the people in their 
personal relations, private and public : " Thirteenth. Morals, 
" religion, industry, commerce, economy — Cherish public 
" credit — Source of strength and security — Adherence to 
" systematic views." 

" Also their relations to foreign nations : Fourteenth. 
44 Cherish good faith, justice, and peace with other nations. 
44 1. Because religion and morality dictate it. 2. Because 
44 policy dictates it. If there could exist a nation inva- 
44 riably honest and faithful, the benefits would be immense. 



HAMILTON'S ABSTRACT OF POINTS. 103 

" But avoid national antipathies or national attachments :" 
and then follows, in emphatic italics. " Display the evils ; 
" fertile source of wars, instrument of ambitions rulers." 

As distinct heads, then follow four others, which branch 
out naturally from the preceding : " Fifteenth. Republics 
" peculiarly exposed to foreign intrigue ; those sentiments 
" lay them open to it. Sixteenth. The great rule of our 
" foreign policy ought to be to have as little political con- 
" nection as possible with foreign nations ; cultivating com- 
" merce with all by general and natural means, diffusing and 
" diversifying it, hut forcing nothing; and cherish the senti- 
" ment of independence, taking pride in the appellation of 
" American ;" and against this last note the margin adds, 
" establishing temporary and convenient rules, that com- 
" merce may be placed on a stable footing ; merchants know 
" their commerce ; how to support them, not seeking fa vors" 
" Seventeenth. Our separation from Europe renders standing 
" alliances inexpedient, subjecting our peace and interest to 
" the primary and complicated relations of European inte- 
" rests. Keeping constantly in view to place ourselves upon 
" a respectable defensive, and, if forced into controversy, 
" trusting to connections of the occasion. Eighteenth. Our 
" attitude imposing, and rendering this policy safe. But 
" this must be with the exception of existing engagements, 
" to be preserved, but not extended." 

The remaining heads of division may be noticed summa- 
rily. The nineteenth is a hint to remark, that it is not ex- 
pected that these admonitions can control the course of 
human passions ; but if it moderates them in some in- 
stances, Washington's endeavor is rewarded. The twentieth, 
that the public records must witness how far his administra- 



104 Hamilton's abstract of points. 

tion has conformed to these principles. His conscience 
assures him that he believed himself to be guided by them. 
Twenty-first. " Particularly in relation to the present war, 
" the proclamation of 22d April, 1793, is the key to my 
" plan. Approved by your voice, and that of your represen- 
" tatives in Congress, the spirit of that measure has con- 
" tinually guided me, uninfluenced by, and regardless of, the 
" complaints and attempts of any of the powers at war, or 
" their partisans, to change them." " I thought our country 
" had a right, under all the circumstances, to take this 
" ground, and I was resolved, as far as it depended on me, 
" to maintain it firmly." There is a memorandum in the 
margin of the second clause of this division, to " touch sen- 
" timents with regard to conduct of belligerent powers. A 
" wish that France may establish good government." Against 
the last clause of it are these words : " Time everything." 
The twenty-second is a clause which is introduced into the 
original draught of Hamilton, in substantially the same 
words, and almost verbatim from that draught into the 
Farewell Address of Washington, of which it is the penul- 
timate clause. It frankly declares, that however, in review- 
ing the course of his administration, he may be unconscious 
of intentional error, he is too sensible of his own deficiencies 
not to believe that he may have fallen into many — depre- 
cates the evils to which they may tend, and prays Heaven 
to avert, or mitigate or abridge them ; — that he carries with 
him, nevertheless, the hope that his motives will continue 
to be viewed with indulgence ; that after forty-five years of 
his life devoted to public service, with a good zeal and 
upright views, the faults of deficient abilities will be con- 
signed to oblivion, as himself must soon be to the mansions 



HAMILTON'S ABSTRACT OF POINTS. 105 

of rest. — We cannot help envying the noble emotion with 
which Hamilton repeated this clause, which was Washing- 
ton's own thought, out of the full consciousness of what was 
stirring in Washington's great heart ! 

The twenty-third, and last clause of the abstract, is sub- 
stantially the same with the corresponding clause in the 
draught, but is completely altered in the concluding clause 
of the Farewell Address. Both the clause in the abstract, 
and the clause in the draught, are taken from the conclusion 
to Washington's original or preparatory draught. The 
alteration in the Farewell Address is by Washington. 

It is a declaration that neither interest nor ambition had 
been Washington's impelling motive — that he had never 
abused the power confided to him — that he had not bettered 
his fortune, retiring with it no otherwise improved, than by 
the influence on property of the common blessings of his 
country. " I retire," it says, " with undefiled hands and an 
" uncorrupt heart, and with ardent vows for the welfare of 
" that country which has been the native soil of my ancestors 
" for four generations." The sentiments were all just, and 
were all suggested, in nearly the same words, by Washington, 
in the concluding section of Washington's own draught to 
which I have referred ; and therefore his friend and minister 
would be naturally desirous that he should close his valedic- 
tion with the expression of them ; but they bordered upon 
what the world might mistake for vain-gloriousness, in re- 
gard to his motives, his purity, his fortune, and his family ; 
and we may take pleasure in supposing, that this final clause 
Washington himself preferred to put aside, as he did, except- 
ing only the reference to his American ancestors, the bond of 
his affection for his country, the view of whose coming 



106 RESULT OF THE ABSTRACT. 

happiness and greatness, seemed to gild the last words of 
his Farewell. 

After having thus placed before the reader this clear and 
orderly abstract, with but little more elucidation than a copy 
of it would give to every one in reading it, we feel some con- 
fidence in remarking, that it would be written as a syllabus 
of Hamilton's original draught, without recurring to Ham- 
ilton's abstract. The syllabus might be considerably fuller 
in some parts, and less full in others. It might omit, in one 
or two places, what the abstract notices, and it might notice 
in more what the abstract does not contain. But they would 
substantially concur; and no person of intelligence, who 
peruses the draught with the abstract before him, can fail 
to perceive that the draught is the regular and orderly ex- 
pansion of the abstract, and a symmetrical structure, of 
which the abstract is the frame, — in some parts the full 
frame, in other parts the more open frame. This structure 
and frame, then, are Hamilton's incontestably. 

The first portions of the frame, where it is fullest, were 
taken in separate parts from portions of Washington's pre- 
paratory draught, as Mr. Madison had sketched it, and also 
as Washington had completed it ; but by Hamilton they are 
placed in a new order. They are what may be called the 
personal parts of that draught, having reference to his own 
relations with the government, his previous wish to retire, 
his present intention to do so, and his motives and feelings 
in regard to the retirement. In these particulars the lan- 
guage of Washington's draught is adopted as far as it could 
be. The structure is built upon, and with, and around 
Washington's principles and sentiments as they appear 
throughout his draught, but upon a plan altogether new, 



ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 107 

none of the elements provided by Washington being omitted, 
except such as had too pointed a reference to partisan oppo- 
sition, and the whole being enlarged and combined together 
by the collateral thoughts and illustrations of Hamilton upon 
his new plan ; and this entire plan goes into the Farewell 
Address, some portion of the filling up by Hamilton's ori- 
ginal draught being omitted, most probably by Hamilton in 
his amended copy or in his revision, and other portions struck 
out by Washington from his final copy, though Hamilton 
had introduced several of them from express passages in 
Washington's preparatory draught. Adopting a mechanical 
measure of contribution by the preparatory draught of Wash- 
ington, when compared with the original matter by Hamil- 
ton, as he extended it in his draught, Washington's part was 
not in quantity a moiety of the whole. But such a measure 
of those contributions, is obviously unsatisfactory and defec- 
tive. We may get a better notion of them by an analysis 
of Hamilton's original draught, which will be in fact an 
analysis of Washington's Farewell Address. I may say, 
however, that the principal original contribution by Mr. 
Madison, is that which repeats the vows that Washington 
would carry into his retirement and his grave, and is the 
ninth head of Hamilton's abstract. All else is substantially, 
and by original suggestion, Washington's or Hamilton's. 

In his original draught, Hamilton made the unity of 
Government, or the Union, the central and radiating thought, 
and the focus to which all important reflections from any 
quarter of the work, except the personal introduction, 
tended. Washington had breathed a warm wish of his heart 
for the maintenance of the Union, in that paragraph of the 
Hints or Heads of Topics, which I have already transcribed, — 



108 ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 

" that it," our Union, " may be as lasting as time ;" and many 
of his sentiments have an obvious influence upon the prospe- 
rity and continuance of the Union ; but he does not expressly 
connect them with that object, nor make it the point to 
which they converge. 

In Hamilton's original draught, after the personal intro- 
duction, the great subject is opened at once. Of the love of 
liberty, which is first noticed, no recommendation was neces- 
sary to fortify the attachment of the people to it. Two lines 
only are given to that subject. But after these lines which 
enter upon the topics of advice and admonition, as soon as 
the introduction had closed, all that follows the expression, 
unity of government, is exhibited and comprehended as 
inducements of sympathy, or motives of interest, in the 
people, to maintain the Union. 

Hamilton calls it the main pillar of their independence, of 
their peace, their safety, freedom, and happiness. In his 
abstract he had called it the rock of their salvation ; but, 
with great propriety, as Washington was to speak, he left 
that phrase to its more solemn appropriation, and substituted 
in his draught " the main pillar of their independence." 

He first speaks of it as the point in their political fortress 
against which the batteries of internal and external enemies 
would be most constantly and actively, however covertly and 
insidiously, levelled ; and therefore it was of the utmost im- 
portance that they should appreciate in its full force the 
immense value of their political union to their national and 
individual happiness, that they should cherish towards it an 
affectionate and immovable attachment, and should watch for 
its preservation with zealous solicitude. 

For this, he says, you have every motive of sympathy and 



ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 109 

interest ; and following Washington's thoughts, and in some 
degree his language, appeals to the people as " children for 
" the most part of a common country," and declares that 
that country claims, and ought to concentrate their affec- 
tions ; that the name of American must always gratify and 
exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any denomina- 
tion which can be derived from local considerations. " You 
" have, with slight shades of difference, the same religion, 
" manners, habits, and political institutions and principles ; 
" you have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed toge- 
" ther. The independence and liberty you enjoy are the 
" work of joint councils, efforts, dangers, sufferings, and suc- 
" cesses. By your union you achieved them, by your union 
" you will most effectually maintain them." 

After adverting to the considerations which addressed 
themselves to the sympathy or sensibility of the people to 
maintain the Union, he proceeds to show that they were 
greatly strengthened or outweighed by those which applied 
to their interest ; and that here every portion of our country 
would find the most urgent and commanding motives for 
guarding and preserving the union of the whole. 

It is then that he introduces that pregnant paragraph, both 
succinct and comprehensive, which unfolds the relations, 
capacities, and dependencies of the North, the South, the 
East, and the West, their strength in combination, their pro- 
portional security from external danger, less frequent inter- 
ruption of peace with foreign nations, and exemption from 
broils and wars between the parts, if disunited, which their 
rivalships, fomented by foreign intrigue and opposite alliance 
with foreign nations, would produce. The germinal thought 
is Washington's, the germination is Hamilton's. 



110 analysis op Hamilton's draught. 

The advantages of union being regarded as so conclusive 
in this aspect, he proceeds to show that the spirit of party, 
the intrigue of foreign nations, and the corruption and ambi- 
tion of individuals, are likely to prove more formidable adver- 
saries to the unity of our empire, than any inherent difficulties 
in the scheme ; and that it was against these that the guards 
of national opinion, national sympathy, national prudence, and 
virtue, were to be erected. 

Then begins the reference to party differences of opinion, 
to menaces of dissolution from one part to another, on account 
of this or that measure, tending to make men consider the 
Union as precarious, and to weaken the sentiment in its 
favor ; with an emphatic rebuke of parties characterized by 
geographical discriminations — Northern and Southern States 
— Atlantic and Western country — producing groundless 
jealousies, which make men aliens to their brethren, and 
connect them with aliens ; and sustaining the rebuke by a 
reference to the care of the Administration in negotiating 
treaties with Spain for the special benefit of the West, and 
to confirm their prosperity. 

This jealousy between sections, necessitates the Union and 
one government, for which no alliance between the parts can 
be a substitute ; and here the draught appropriately refers 
to the Constitution, the offspring of the people's choice, and 
amendable by them in case of need, but, until changed, 
sacredly binding upon all, and the government under it, the 
offspring of like choice, entitled to respect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, and acquiescence in its measures, 
as well by the fundamental maxims of true liberty, as by 
the principle that the right to establish government presup- 
poses the duty of every individual to obey the established 



ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. Ill 

government. All obstructions to laws, all combinations and 
associations to counteract the regular action of the established 
authorities, are therefore contrary to the fundamental prin- 
ciple, and of the most fatal tendency ; and in like manner, 
a spirit of innovation upon the principles of the Constitu- 
tion, by effecting alterations in its forms, which tend to 
impair the energy of the system. Time and habit are as 
necessary to fix the true habits of governments, as of any 
other human institutions. Experience, and not hypothesis 
and opinion, is the surest standard by which the tendency of 
existing constitutions of government can be tried. 

The draught, after thus noticing the Constitution and one 
government as indispensable to the duration of the Union, 
and that no alliances between parts would be a substitute, 
recurs to the subject of party spirit, and solemnly cautions 
the people against its baneful effects. The view before 
taken is enlarged, so as to comprehend the general aspect 
of this feeling, its shapes, its growth, the domination of one 
faction over another, the spirit of revenge it excites, and the 
formal and permanent despotism in which at length it ends. 
Disorders and miseries resulting from this, predispose men 
to seek repose in the power of a single man ; and the leader 
of a prevailing faction turns the disposition to the purposes 
of his ambitious self-aggrandizement. 

Further consequences result from it : it distracts the coun- 
sels and enfeebles the administration of government — opens 
inlets for foreign corruption and influence, which find an 
easy access through the channel of party passions. The 
notion that parties in free countries are a salutary check 
upon the administration of government, and tend to invigo- 
rate the spirit of liberty, is, within certain limits, true. In 



112 ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 

monarchical governments, patriotism may look upon it with 
favor ; in those of a popular kind and purely elective, it is 
not to be fostered. 

The draught then proceeds to the guards of national 
opinion, — in habits of thinking among the people, to pro- 
duce caution in the several departments, that they may avoid 
encroachments upon one another, and change, by usurpation ; 
of national sympathy, virtue, and prudence, by recommenda- 
tions of religion and morality, industry and frugality ; to the 
nurture of public credit, as a means of security and strength ; 
to good faith and justice, as leading to peace and harmony 
with all nations. The last topic is particularly developed in 
its bearing upon the influence of foreign nations, — the na- 
tional attachments and antipathies it avoids ; the immense 
dangers of both; the partialities which the neglect of it 
produces, denying privileges to one and conceding them to 
another — exciting jealousy and ill-will, and giving to ambi- 
tious and corrupted citizens, facility in betraying or sacri- 
ficing their own country. 

Perhaps the finest lessons in the draught of the Address 
are taught in this part of it, which unfolds the topic of 
foreign influence, its mischiefs and impolicy, and the dissua- 
sives from it which are supplied by the true interests of a 
united nation. It was a pressing evil in the day of the 
Farewell Address. It carried our country to the very edge 
of the precipice, from which we might have fallen to dis- 
memberment and ruin, by coalition with France, and her 
wars of ambition against the world. If the Farewell Ad- 
dress saved us from this, though it saved us from nothing 
else, it would deserve to be regarded as a blessing from 
Heaven through the counsels of Washington, not less in 



ANALYSIS OF HAMILTON'S DKAUGHT. 118 

magnitude than the blessing of Independence, which was 
vouchsafed to his sword. 

It is with this topic that the draught finishes the central 
subject and argument. The remainder of it is occupied 
with a reference to the proclamation of neutrality, and the 
then existing war, the only occasional topics of the Address ; 
and it concludes with a modest peroration, corresponding 
with the abstract, and breathing the full heart of the 
Father of his Country, to his native land and the people 
he had always loved, and had served for three-quarters of 
his life. 

This analysis of the original draught has been made with 
two objects in view. The first has been to demonstrate the 
connection between the draught and the abstract, and that 
the draught was the appropriate clothing of the abstract, 
fitting it as the muscles of the human body do their proper 
bones, and having such development and expansion only as 
were necessary to give it lit expression and energetic action. 
"Where Hamilton had the clue to Washington's language as 
well as thoughts, he followed it faithfully, as faithfully in 
the abstract as in the draught ; where he had the guidance 
of Washington's thoughts or suggestions alone, he notes the 
subject more briefly in the abstract, intending to give the 
rein more liberally to his own thoughts and language in 
the development of the draught. We get the pith of the 
address in the abstract ; and when we go to the draught, 
we find it all plainly and most perspicuously drawn out, so 
as to be intelligible to every capacity, that it might be un- 
derstood by " the yeomanry," and at the same time so 
becomingly, as to " meet the eye of discerning readers, par- 
" ticularly foreigners," yet not containing, perhaps, a single 



114 THE CHARACTER OF HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT. 

metaphor or figure of speech, which is not a perfectly fami- 
liar one, that it might not be accused of artifice or insince- 
rity. It is perfectly accurate, in the best style of an elevated 
state paper, its general propositions everywhere so qualified, 
in a natural and easy manner, as to make them irrefutable, 
and without a sentence that is dogmatical, or is averred upon 
personal authority, — every proposition being sustained by 
both reason and persuasion, the conscience of the writer 
going on step by step to the end, in union with his intellect. 
If Hamilton had not deeply loved and respected Wash- 
ington, he could not have so clothed his abstract with his 
draught. But this is not all the merit or the claim. 

If this is not authorship, in some sense, I know not what 
authorship is, and it covers the entire paper, Washington's 
thoughts, and Madison's thoughts, and all. It seems, indeed, 
to be rather a case of complex and skilful authorship in 
Hamilton, as we think it must be conceded to be by every 
man who has tried his pen in composition, to make a regular 
work from irregular or unconnected materials, to expand 
them into new forms, and to give them bearing throughout 
upon one great and cardinal point, the union of the people : 
the only object for which it was worth Washington's while 
to give his counsels to the country, all else in the Address 
being ceremony and valediction. It may not have been so 
difficult for Hamilton to do this, as it might have been for 
others ; for Washington's materials were not irregular to the 
eye or the mind of Hamilton. They were all incorporated 
in his own mind in their just order and bearing ; and his 
work was to exhibit their order, rather than to form it. But 
it is his great praise that he did it with simplicity, fidelity, 
and affection ; and it will be no deduction from the praise of 



LITERARY CHARACTER OF FAREWELL ADDRESS. 115 

Washington, if the memory of Hamilton shall live forever in 
the work. 

Bnt we have had in view another object. In the progress 
of this question about the authorship of the Farewell Ad- 
dress, it has been thought useful by Mr. Sparks to suggest, 
that as a mere literary performance, though able and excel- 
lent, it is neither extraordinary, nor such as if disconnected 
from the name of Washington, would have excited much 
curiosity about the author, nor in any degree superior to 
many other papers known to be written by each of the per- 
sons named. 

There would be some difficulty, perhaps, in proving the 
postulate that is implied in this last comparison. No wri- 
tings so known have been vouched to its aid. From the 
positive part of the averment, I hope it is not presumption 
to express my dissent. If state papers, or great public 
papers like this, are to be classed among works of literature 
at all, and doubtless they sometimes may be, they must be 
subject to those laws of taste which particularly respect the 
end or object to be attained, in connection with a rather 
didactic manner of attaining it. There is necessarily some 
compression in this method ; and making clue allowance for 
this, or rather looking at the whole work of the Farewell Ad- 
dress in this direction, the general judgment of men has, in 
this dissent, probably concurred. Its simplicity, its purity, its 
grouping, its light and shade, the elevation of its tone, and 
its perfect transparency of meaning, make it a work of ex- 
traordinary literary merit in the order or class to which it 
belongs. We are not to compare it with papers, where the 
fields of imagination and of illustrative fact have been wide 
open to the writer, and embellishments from every quarter, 



116 LITERARY CHARACTER OF FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

moral and classical, have been within his reach. The path 
of the Farewell Address was almost severely straight, and 
the deviations by Hamilton to give it flexure, without too 
wide a departure, have been managed with great skill. Per- 
haps this impression of the paper is partly the effect of early 
association, having read it as a college senior with infinite 
delight, within a week probably after its first publication ; 
and perhaps also it is as much a moral as a literary judg- 
ment, for it is a paper of infinite discretion, as well as of 
great political wisdom, which I admit it owes as much to 
Washington as to Hamilton, though perhaps as to perfect 
discretion, not primarily. But regarding it only as a work 
of composition, the general opinion both of educated men 
and of statesmen seems to be, that it is not only very able, 
but that in the category of state papers it ought to be 
regarded as classical. Such a paper would have caused a 
most reasonable curiosity to know the author, if it had been 
written suppositiously, and would have made the fortune of 
the writer if he had been discovered. 

But the paper is not seen in its greatest magnitude, when 
regarded merely as a literary performance. It rises to an 
elevation higher than most kinds of literature, in command- 
ing a view of the relations of all the parts of this country to 
each other, and of the whole to foreign nations, and in 
carrying the eye to the distant future, as the witness and 
proof of its counsels and admonitions. In this aspect, it is 
both a platform and a prophecy, a rule for administration, 
and a warning to the whole country ; and it owes this exten- 
sively to Hamilton, though primarily and fundamentally to 
Washington. Its large and pointed references to the spirit of 
party, and especially in the sectional or State relation, seem 



ITS POLITICAL OR ADMINISTRATIVE CHARACTER. 117 

to have been written with a special apprehension of what is 
now unfolding before us, though it must be admitted that 
there is one present and most dangerous aspect of that spirit, 
which the universal love of freedom then prevalent in the 
country, kept back from the contemplation of either Wash- 
ington or Hamilton, as it did from that of the citizens of the 
United States generally, until many years afterwards. 

There is one point of great political concernment which, 
at least in appearance, is passed over by both Washington 
and Hamilton, — the point of that drying and wilting inter- 
pretation of the Constitution, which has assumed the name 
of State Bights, — that portion of the doctrine, I mean, 
which requires express words in the Constitution, or neces- 
sary implication, to carry power to the Government of the 
United States — the same jealous disposition in those who 
favor that rule of construction, which kept us out of a Federal 
Constitution for five years after the public enemy had left 
us free to make one ;* and seems to be exhausting by 
desiccation, legislative and judicial, the best blood the Consti- 
tution possesses, and which, as the Constitution of a Public 
State and United Nation, it ought to possess, for the nourish- 
ment of its powers of internal government, — a doctrine by 
which no one of the States has gained anything, nor can 
gain anything that will not be counterpoised by the gain of 



* For a clear and very interesting account of the struggle between State Rights and 
a comprehensive and effective Union, I refer to " The History of the Republic of the 
" United States of America, as traced in the writings of Alexander Hamilton and his 
i; Cotemporaries, by John C. Hamilton,'" — a noble and fearless tribute of filial reverence, 
in the form of authentic history, to a most able, frank, honest, and honorable man, and 
one of the great men of his Age, and of the World. 



118 ALLUSION TO FEEBLENESS OF CONSTITUTION. 

other States, and by which the true Federal strength of all 
the States is, and ever must be, seriously impaired. 

The Farewell Address does not notice the point explicitly ; 
but it is there nevertheless. It must be recollected that this 
kind of interpretation was the occasion of sharp controversy 
in Washington's first cabinet, and that the views of Hamil- 
ton in regard to it, in opposition to Jefferson and the At- 
torney-General, Randolph, obtained Washington's sanction, 
after long and deliberate consideration ; and as Washington 
was aware that Hamilton had been represented as being 
desirous in the Convention to bring on a consolidation of 
the States, though with no justice whatever, and most cer- 
tainly with less justice than Madison might have been, he 
probably deemed it best to take no explicit notice of the 
point in his Farewell Address, and Hamilton, as his repre- 
sentative, only glanced at it, by referring to the debility of 
the Government, of which he probably regarded this jealous 
interpretation as one of the principal promoters. Yet there 
is one clause in the Address which we may infer from strong 
evidence was introduced by Washington himself, that may 
have been intended to cover this ground, and was substi- 
tuted by him for a clause in Hamilton's original draught, a 
little altered in Hamilton's revision. The three clauses will 
be cited presently. 

Having now exhibited the direct proofs which bear upon 
the formation of the Farewell Address, I proceed to notice a 
great and perhaps conclusive indirect proof, which by a 
remarkable oversight, has been for some years thought by 
many persons to show, that the labor of bringing this great 
paper into the world, was the travail of Washington alone, 
who has proved his own composition of it by manifold marks 



WASHINGTON'S AUTOGRAPH COPY. 119 

in the autograph copy, which was handed to the printer, by 
whom it was published in September, 1796. It is a copy of 
this document, with its erasures or cancellations restored and 
placed at foot, first printed under the direction of Mr. Lenox, 
the proprietor, for private distribution, and recently pub- 
lished in the Appendix to the fifth volume of Mr. Irving's 
Life of Washington, which enables me to bring together in 
this place a notice of the alterations on the face of the auto- 
graph copy, and of some of the opinions which have been 
expressed upon the question of authorship, in the belief that 
they are corroborated by those alterations. 

Mr. Sparks's remark in view of these alterations, is, I 
submit, a misapprehension. After making a general state- 
ment of facts in regard to the preparation of the Address by 
Washington, and to Hamilton's agency in correcting and 
improving it, a statement which he believed to include all 
that w T as known with certainty upon the subject, Mr. Sparks 
proceeds to say : " It proves that an original draught was 
" sent by Washington to Hamilton ; that the latter bestowed 
" great pains in correcting and improving it ; that during 
" this process several communications passed between them ; 
" and that the final draught was printed from a copy," by 
which I understand him to mean a copy of Washington's 
draught so corrected, " containing numerous alterations in 
" matter and style, which were unquestionably made by 
" Washington." Washington's Writings, vol. xii, p. 396. 

Mr. Sparks does not appear to have seen Hamilton's 
original draught, or Hamilton's correction and revision of 
that draught, nor to have become aware of them, before he 
wrote this paragraph, or before he completed the paper in 
his Appendix, upon Washington's Farewell Address. I 



120 AUTOGRAPH ALTERATIONS BY WASHINGTON. 

should infer, also, that at that time he had not seen the 
whole correspondence between Washington and Hamilton 
on that subject ; though he certainly had access to General 
Hamilton's letters, which were among Washington's papers. 
He appears to have had no knowledge of any draught by 
Hamilton, or of anything from Hamilton, but his corrections 
and improvements of Washington's draught, the specific 
character of which draught he had previously remarked, 
there were no means of ascertaining. It is due to him to 
state these circumstances ; because independently of them, it 
will be found impossible to comprehend the process by which 
he arrived at the conclusion, that the numerous alterations 
in matter and style of that copy from which the Address 
was printed, " were unquestionably made by Washington ;" 
unless he used this language with a meaning which few 
readers would apprehend from it. 

It has been made perfectly clear already, that the auto- 
graph copy of the Farewell Address was not made from a 
copy of Washington's draught corrected and improved. 
The letter of 25th August, 1796, from Washington to 
Hamilton, proves that Washington selected Hamilton's 
draught in preference to his own, whether in the original 
or in the corrected form ; and it will be made equally clear, 
that the alterations made by the autograph copy, of the an- 
terior draught from which it was taken, are not " numerous 
" alterations in matter or style " by Washington, in the 
ordinary sense of these words, but are, to nearly the whole 
extent of the change, a mere abridgment, by cancellation of 
certain paragraphs of Hamilton's exemplar, from which the 
autograph copy was made. The judgment of Mr. Sparks 
was founded, no doubt, upon a state of the facts as they were 



THE DRAUGHT FROM WHICH AUTOGRAPH COPY MADE. 121 

then apparent to him, but most materially different from 
the real state of them, as they now appear. 

Other persons, as well as Mr. Sparks, have made their 
suggestions in regard to the inferences which should be 
made from these alterations in the autograph copy, now that 
the cancelled passages have been restored and printed at the 
foot of the page ; and I shall advert to one of those sugges- 
tions presently, in connection with an important reference to 
Mr. Jay's opinion expressed to Judge Peters. 

It cannot admit of doubt, that when Washington pro- 
ceeded to make that autograph copy, which was published 
in the gazette, and recorded in the Department of State, he 
had before him a draught of the Address, already prepared 
by somebody. The autograph paper was not a first draught 
— such a suggestion would not have a shadow of support. It 
has been shown that there was a previous paper, with which 
it corresponds marvellously in almost infinite points. But 
what would be decisive, if nothing of the kind had been 
shown, there are marks of finish, and some elaboration, in 
the whole order and arrangement, and in entire pages of the 
autograph copy, — in one place four in number, full and 
closely printed pages, — where there does not appear to have 
been the second touch of a pen, nor an erasure or cancella- 
tion of any kind, by "Washington or by anybody. Besides, 
there are many long clauses, now appearing at the foot of 
the pages, which, after being introduced by Washington into 
the body of the copy, have been cancelled by him, with- 
out having been changed, in the course of writing, by the 
obliteration or interlineation of a word. The autograph has 
several verbal alterations in other parts, such as a writer 
might make in revising his own work, or the work of another 



122 



man ; but in these important parts there is nothing of this 
kind; and this is practically an infallible proof that the 
autograph is so far the copy of a previous draught. That 
it was so throughout, before Washington began to revise 
and alter it, will be made extremely probable, if not per- 
fectly clear. The first inquiry is, whose and what was that 
previous draught % 

It may be recollected that Hamilton sent his revision 
of the amended original draught in a rough state to Wash- 
ington, on the 6th September, 1796. It was received, pro- 
bably, the next day, and the autograph was signed and 
dated the 17th of September, nine or ten days afterwards. 
It may also be recollected that Washington intended to have 
it copied, or at least prepared for being copied, for the press, 
immediately. 

Now, the draught that was before Washington when he 
made his autograph copy, was not Hamilton's original draught. 
That original draught, probably, never left Hamilton's pos- 
session during his life. Though Hamilton's original draught 
was the basis of the paper which he transcribed and sent 
to Washington, and is also the basis of the autograph 
copy, the alteration of words in many places, quite fre- 
quently throughout the work — the change of paragraphs 
by consolidation and division — the occasional introduction 
of a new thought, and a new line or two, in pages of the 
autograph copy where there is not an interlineation or era- 
sure by Washington, show that the copy from which Wash- 
ington was writing, was a different paper. Whoever com- 
pares the autograph copy with the original draught of 
Hamilton, will be convinced of this. 

The presumption naturally arises, — and I state it at this 



BUT HAMILTON'S REVISION. 123 

time only as a presumption, — that the draught from which 
Washington made his autograph copy, was Hamilton's 
revision. Setting aside for the moment Washington's own 
alteration of words, in the autograph, which speak pretty 
clearly for themselves, it was just such a draught as we 
might expect Hamilton's revision to be. 

The original draught, it may be recollected, bears an in- 
dorsement, in Hamilton's handwriting, that it had been 
" considerably amended." Words are changed, in the 
manner that is shown in the two parallel columns on 
page 93 of this essay, of a long clause, taken literally from 
Hamilton's original draught, and the corresponding clause 
taken from Washington's autograph copy, upon which the 
cancelling or altering pen of Washington has not, according 
to Mr. Irving's reprint, fallen in a single instance from be- 
ginning to end. There are, perhaps, twenty verbal differ- 
ences between the two clauses, such as a very critical writer 
might make in an amendment and revision of his own com- 
position ; but Washington does not appear to have made a 
single one, by change or obliteration in the autograph copy; 
and probably no other man than the author would have 
thought it a needful improvement to make more than a very 
few of them. 

In other instances, the order of a sentence or phrase is 
improved, — a clause is added upon " education," — and two 
or three paragraphs, which are in the original draught of 
Hamilton, are left out altogether, and not noticed in any 
way in the autograph copy. This is strong presumptive 
proof that it was Hamilton who left them out of his 
amended copy. 

Nearly a dozen paragraphs in the autograph were copied 



124 Washington's autograph cancellations. 

and then cancelled by Washington, and are now seen re- 
stored at the foot of the pages in the printed copy of the 
autograph. Some of these are, probably, the paragraphs 
which Washington, in his letter of 25 th August, told Ham- 
ilton that he should expunge. " I shall expunge," — not 
that he had expunged them, — as being " unimportant" &c. 
&c. One of them is a long paragraph, so marked in the 
printed copy of the autograph. Hamilton had retouched 
them all hi his corrected and amended copy, or in his revi- 
sion of the original draught, just as he had retouched other 
paragraphs of that draught, and had left Washington to 
expunge them, if he should see fit ; but Washington had 
not touched a word before expunging them, but in two in- 
stances, to be noticed hereafter. It looks as if Washington 
had subsequently intended to retain them, but had afterwards 
cancelled them, in conformity with his first intention. 

All the appearances in the autograph — and some of them 
will be further corroborated — show that it was Hamilton's 
revision of his amended copy of the original draught that 
Washington first copied in extenso, and then proceeded to 
alter and to cancel. This, I repeat, is only presumption. 
The main question will not be disturbed by its not being 
well founded; though, if it be well founded, it becomes 
demonstrative of the whole question. 

The gentleman who is the present proprietor of the auto- 
graph, and whose remarks upon it are printed as a preface 
to the copy in Mr. Irving's work, after seeing the original 
draught of Hamilton, and reading certain letters between 
Washington and Hamilton, in the possession of Mr. John 
C. Hamilton, has expressed, with caution and modesty, the 
following opinion : " It seems probable that this " — namely, 



OPINIONS EXPRESSED CONCERNING THEM. 125 

the autograph copy of Washington — "is the very draught 
" sent to General Hamilton and Chief Justice Jay, as related 
" in the letter of the latter." And again : " It appears from 
" these communications," — the letters between Washington 
and Hamilton, — " that the President, both in sending to him 
" a rough draught of the document, and at subsequent dates, 
" requested him to prepare such an address as he thought 
" would be appropriate to the occasion ; that Washington 
" consulted him particularly and most minutely on many 
" points connected with it ; and that, at different times, 
" General Hamilton did forward to the President three 
" draughts of such a paper. The first was sent back to him, 
" with suggestions for its correction and enlargement ; from 
" the second draught, thus altered and improved, the manu- 
" script now printed may be supposed to have been prepared 
" by Washington, and transmitted for final examination to 
" General Hamilton and Judge Jay ; and with it the third 
" draught was sent to the President, and may, probably, yet 
" be found among his papers." — The concluding remark of 
this gentleman is all that we shall further extract : " The 
"comparison of these two papers" — Hamilton's original 
draught, which the writer speaks of as " probably the 
" second of these draughts," compared with Washington's 
autograph — " is exceedingly curious. It is difficult to con- 
" ceive how two persons could express the same ideas, in 
" substantially the same language, and yet in such diversity 
" in the construction of the sentences and the position of the 
" words." 

I entirely agree with this gentleman in a part of these 
remarks. It has been shown to be my supposition, that the 
autograph copy of Washington was prepared from the 



126 DISSENT FROM SOME OF THESE OPINIONS. 

amended or corrected copy of Hamilton's original draught, 
altered and improved by his second, which I have called his 
revision. The differences between the original draught and 
Washington's autograph copy — noticed in this gentleman's 
closing remark just quoted — are easily explained, upon the 
theory that Washington adopted Hamilton's revision, and 
not Hamilton's original draught, as the exemplar of the 
autograph copy. 

But I am compelled to express my dissent from the other 
remarks and suggestions of the proprietor of the autograph. 
The material fact, as he states it, is, in my opinion, rightly 
stated ; but the history of Hamilton's agency, and the trans- 
mission of the autograph copy to Hamilton and Jay, or of 
any copy of the Farewell Address prepared by Washington, 
after Hamilton's amended and revised copy had been sent to 
him, are matters which I think this gentleman would have 
regarded differently, if he had had all the letters and papers 
in his own hands, for deliberate consideration and compari- 
son. It is a patient and minute review of the whole of 
them, side by side, including Mr. Jay's letter to Judge 
Peters, that has obliged me to adopt the opinion, that the 
supposed transmission is not only negatived by the corre- 
spondence, but that it disregards the dates of the letters, the 
course of the transaction as it is shown by the letters, and, 
most of all, the statement of Mr. Jay himself. 

The first draught sent by Hamilton to Washington was 
not sent back to Hamilton, " with suggestions for its correc- 
tion and enlargement" Washington's letters of the 10th 
and 25th of August are decisive to the contrary. Instead 
of suggesting enlargement of that draught, the letter of the 
10th August was only apprehensive of its being too large as 



AUTOGEAPH COPY XOT SENT TO HAMILTON AND JAY. 127 

it was; and instead of suggesting correction, — though the 
paper was sent back, at Hamilton's request, for revision, — 
the letter of 25th August says that Washington " should 
" have seen no occasion himself for its undergoing a re- 
c; vision." It says that he should expunge all that was 
marked in the paper as unimportant, &c, and called atten- 
tion to some marginal notes with a pencil, to obtain 
Hamilton's mature consideration of the sentiments referred 
to. With these very limited qualifications, the letter was a 
full adoption of Hamilton's draught in all points. 

It is also a misapprehension to suppose that Hamilton's 
" second draught," from which " the manuscript now printed 
" may be supposed to have been prepared by Washington," 
was " transmitted for final examination to General Hamilton 
" and Jay." 

There was no such transmission. The letters and dates 
are plainly to the contrary. Time alone considered, there 
was not sufficient time. The draught was sent back to 
Washington, with a letter from Hamilton dated the 6th of 
September, and the Farewell Address was copied with 
Washington's own pen, and was signed and dated for the 
gazette and for recording in the Department of State, the 
17th of September, 1796. 

It must be recollected, that fifteen years after Mr. Jay had 
been consulted about the corrections and emendations of " the 
" President's draught," and the only time, so far as his letter 
imports, that he ever was consulted in regard to any draught 
of the Farewell Address, he speaks in his letter of its having 
been some time before the Address appeared ; and we know 
that the Farewell Address appeared on the 19th September, 
1796, in a public gazette of Philadelphia. The interval had 



128 AUTOGRAPH NOT SENT TO HAMILTON AND JAY. 

impressed Mr. Jay's memory. It was long enough to have 
made an impression which had lasted nearly fifteen years. 
It is not conceivable that any interval whatever would have 
been impressed as a distinct fact upon Mr. Jay's memory, 
between the time of conference upon an autograph paper, the 
exemplar of which was received by Washington on the 7th 
of September at the earliest, copied with his own pen after 
that, and then transmitted to Hamilton and Jay, reviewed, 
corrected, and amended by Hamilton, a day fixed for an 
interview with Jay to consult about it, and that subsequent 
day given to the reading and approval of the emendations, 
and after that review returned to Washington and more 
fully corrected by him, before the 17th September. Steam 
speed is not equal to this. I say nothing of Mr. Jay's omit- 
ting to write a word of its being an autograph of Washing- 
ton, which he would have known and noticed as soon as any 
one, nor of Hamilton's saying in the interview, that he had 
thought it " best to write the whole over with amendments," 
&c. We cannot under such suggestions abandon Hamil- 
ton's letter of 10th August. 

But further: from the 6th of September, there was no 
letter from Washington to Hamilton, but one of the same 
date, which requested Hamilton to send the paper by Mr. 
Kip, if not sent before, until the 2d November, six weeks 
after the Farewell Address had been printed.* Mr. Jay's 



* It is in this letter of 2d November, 179G, from Washington to Hamilton, a letter of 
three pages, referring to the case of the minister of France, Adet, and asking Hamil- 
ton's opinion on the course the Government should take in regard to him, that Wash- 
ington thus speaks of his unrestrained confidence and freedom of correspondence with 
Hamilton : " As I have a very high opinion of Mr. Jay's judgment, candor, honor, and 
" discretion (though I am not in the habit of writing so freely to him as to you), it would 



AUTOGRAPH NOT SENT TO HAMILTON AND JAY. 129 

privity with the subject began and ended in the one inter- 
view, of which the result was sent to Washington on the 
10th August. The supposition that the autograph ever 
came back to Hamilton, either individually or for joint con- 
sultation and alteration by Hamilton and Jay, is therefore 
not only without authority from the correspondence, but is 
in direct opposition to it, as well as to Mr. Jay's letter to 
Judge Peters. 

But the decisive consideration against the transmission of 
an autograph copy, or any other prepared copy, of the Fare- 
well Address to Hamilton and. Jay for correction, and the 
return of such copy corrected for the final Farewell Address, 
is this. There was but one interview between Jay and 
Hamilton on this subject — one interview, after the time for 
it was previously arranged between them. Mr. Jay's letter 
to Judge Peters mentions that, and no other, interview. 
The proceedings at that interview are detailed by Mr. Jay 
with great distinctness, both what was said and what was 
done. The result of the interview is given with equal dis- 
tinctness: it was the reading and approving of a paper 
containing amendments of " the President's draught," as 
Mr. Jay calls it, of which the original was left fair ; and the 
amendments w T ere so made, or arranged, that Washington 
would perceive by inspection where they would find their 
proper places in that draught. Now, let it be remarked, 
such a correction of Washington's draught existed in ori- 



" be very pleasing to me, if you would show him this letter (although it is a hurried 
" one, my time having been much occupied since my arrival by the heads of depart- 
" ments, and with the papers which have been laid before me), and let me have for 
" consideration your joint opinions on the several matters herein stated." — Hamilton's 
Works, vol. vi, p. 159. 

9 



130 HAMILTON'S CORRECTIONS OF WASHINGTON'S DRAUGHT. 

ginal at Washington's death, and was found among Wash- 
ington's papers. It is the same which Hamilton returned 
to Washington, on the 10th August, 1796. A copy of it is 
in the possession of Mr. Sparks. I have seen and read a 
copy of Mr. Sparks's copy.* It is sufficient to say, that it 



* A few clays after this essay was put to press, and a part of it printed, I was favored 
by Mr. John C. Hamilton with a copy of the paper containing Hamilton's corrections of 
Washington's draught, received by him from Mr. Sparks ; the paper alluded to in Ham- 
ilton's letter to Washington, dated 10th August, 1796. It is a paper of thirteen manu- 
script pages, foolscap, sparsely written on one side of each leaf; and, except on the 
first page, written in two columns. The beginning of it is obviously intended to be a 
substitute for the beginning of Washington's original draught of an Address, and modi- 
fies it to some extent. After completing the correction of this part, there follows, in 
the right hand column of the second page, this line, as the beginning of a new para- 
graph : "The period, &c. (take in the whole Address.)" The words "The period," 
are the initial words of Mr. Madison's draught. See Washington's Works, vol. xii, page 
387. The words of the line between parentheses, are therefore a direction to go on 
with the whole of Mr. Madison's draught. 

The copy then proceeds, in the subsequent pages, to arrange, modify, and add to the 
thoughts expressed in the paper entitled by Mr. Sparks, "Hints, or Heads of Topics," 
beginning with the following paragraph, written by Hamilton : " Had not particular 
" occurrences intervened to exhibit our political situation, in some respects, under new 
" attitudes, I should have thought it unnecessary to add anything to what precedes," &c. 
This supplies the first sentence of the " Hints, or Heads of Topics," which is as follows: 
" Had the situation of our public affairs continued to wear the same aspect they assumed 
" at the time the foregoing Address was drawn, I should not have taken the liberty of 
" troubling you, my fellow-citizens, with any new sentiment," &c. ; and, after this first 
paragraph closes, there is an asterisk, directing the reader to the top of the adjacent 
column, on the left hand side, where Hamilton immediately introduces the subject of 
the Union, (ihe last but one of Washington's wishes or vows in the " Heads, or Hints of 
" Topics,") in these words: " Let me, then, conjure you, fellow-citizens, fatill more ear- 
" nestly than I have done, to hold fast to that Union which constitutes you one people;" 
and he goes on through the following pages to page 8 of the manuscript, with an orderly 
notice of other parts of the " Hints, or Heads of Topics," very much after the manner 
of his original draught, introducing on page 8, opposite to a paragraph in regard to the 
spirit of party, the following line, written lengthwise on the right hand margin : " This 
14 is not in the first — maybe interwoven;" ihe first referring, no doubt, to Hamilton's 
original and amended draught, already sent on. And then the paper proceeds to the 



SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 131 

is a correction ^r emendation of Washington's original or 
preparatory draught, and no more ; and in plan, and con- 
end of the amendments and of the paper itself in the same manner, closing with these 
words: "The nation which indulges against another habitual hatred, or for another 
"habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is,'' &c. Immediately below which 
is this direction : " To the end, as in the former." At the top of the left hand column 
of this last page (13), and opposite to the concluding paragraph, of which I have given 
the closing lines, are these words : " Varied from the first I sent, and I think for the 
" better. If the first be preserved (? preferred), 'tis easy to incorporate this." 

By recurring to Hamilton's original draught, in his Works, vol. vii, page 589, it will 
readily be perceived, that the direction "to the end, as in the former," refers to the 
middle of the second paragraph on that page, where these words occur: "That nation 
" which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some 
" degree a slave. . . It is a slave to its animosity," &c. Hamilton's direction, therefore, 
is to go on to the end of that paragraph, in the copy of his original and amended 
draught, sent on the 30th July; perhaps, also, to the end of Washington's Conclusion. 

There is no further clause or direction on my copy of the paper, nor was there, I 
presume, on the original. We may suppose, therefore, perhaps, that the corrections, 
having supplied the place of Mr. Sparkl's " Hints, or Heads of Topics," Washington's 
Conclusion, as I have called it, was to be followed to the end, after the paragraph 
referred to in his own draught first sent. 

This character of the paper I possess, which I think is here accurately described, 
though it substantially accords with Mr. Jay's account of it, makes it difficult to believe 
that at least parts of the "President's draught" were not read at that interview from 
the very paper itself; for in the copy there are but two words written of Mr. Madison's 
draught, nor yet any part of Washington's Conclusion. There is not even an express 
direction at the end, to include that Conclusion. But as the subjects contained in the 
" Hints, or Heads of Topics" had been corrected and amended by Hamilton, as far as 
he intended, and as his own correcting paper did not supply any conclusion at all, the 
former direction to go on "to the end, as in the former," may have comprehended the 
Conclusion of Washington's paper, as well as the remainder of the paragraph in his 
draught first sent. 

It would seem to follow, that the lapse of time had in some degree impaired Mr. 
Jay's recollections of the interview. Parts of Washington's draught must have been 
read from the paper. Neither Madison's draught nor Washington's Conclusion appears 
in my copy. The paper, moreover, is not a transcript, as Mr. Sparks calls it, but Wash- 
ington's paper "corrected upon the general plan of it," as Hamilton's letter of 25th 
June said it would be, with marks and references to show how the corrections or 
amendments should be incorporated. 



132 Washington's original draught, the only paper 

spicuously in extent or volume, is a totally different paper 
from the Farewell Address, from Hamilton's original 
draught, and from Washington's autograph copy, in either 
stage of it, with or without the cancelled passages. But it is 
certain, at the same time, that Hamilton's corrections, in 
several particulars, followed the sentiments and language 
of his original draught, with or without such variations as 
he introduced into his amended copy, which he sent to 
Washington on the 30th July, 1796, — the corrections of 
Washington's draught having been begun and being under 
way before he sent his amended copy to Washington. 

It follows necessarily, from these premises, that the auto- 
graph copy was not sent to Hamilton and Jay, and that they 
had no interview to correct it, and that they did not correct 
it ; and, if we may imply a negative from the full affirmative 
evidence we possess, that neither Jay nor Hamilton ever 
saw it. The paper which was read and approved in that 
interview, and sent back, was Washington's original draught, 
and not Hamilton's original draught, nor Hamilton's revi- 
sion of that draught, nor Washington's autograph copy of 
the Farewell Address, nor anything else but Washington's 
original or preparatory draught amended, the same which 
was sent to Washington on the 10th of August. The paper 
thus sent to Washington was not the subject of a single 
remark by rfim afterwards, except in his letter of 25th 
August, when he inclosed to Hamilton, at his own request, 
the amended copy of Hamilton's original draught, and said, 
" I have given the paper herewith inclosed several serious 
" and attentive readings, and prefer it greatly to the other 
" draughts" — which other draughts were two only, Wash- 
ington's original or preparatory draught, " left fair," as Mr. 



CORRECTED BY HAMILTON WITH JAY. 183 

Jay says, and the emendations of it by Hamilton, which had 
been road by Hamilton to Jay. The supposition, therefore, 
that Hamilton and Jay, or Hamilton with Jay's assistance, 
made, by amendment or otherwise, a third draught, after 
Washington had sent forward his autograph copy, or a pre- 
pared copy, of the Farewell Address, for correction, con- 
founds both dates and facts, and puts all the letters of 
Washington and Hamilton, and Mr. Jay's letter to Judge 
Peters, just as much as the others, completely out of joint. 
Of course, a hasty or current perusal of Hamilton's letters 
and original draught might have led to the same impression 
in anybody, which the Preface to the copy of the autograph 
in Mr. Irving's work expresses ; but the possession of those 
letters for the requisite time in my hands, has enabled me 
to look with great care into the whole series, and to get, I 
think, the true bearing of all. 

It may be very safely predicted that such a third draught 
as the Preface in Mr. Irving's Appendix postulates, will 
never be found, since no one of the letters I have referred 
to, recognizes it as having existed, and, on the contrary, the 
very connected story they tell implies, necessarily, that it 
never did exist. That Hamilton's revision, from which I 
have supposed that Washington copied his autograph in 
extenso in the first instance, before he altered any part of it, — 
the same which the Preface in Mr. Irving's Appendix calls 
Hamilton's second draught, — will never be found, is another 
matter. There can be no doubt that Washington, according 
to his uniform habit, of which the traces are strong in regard 
to the papers concerning the Farewell Address, did preserve 
it up to the time of his death. In all probability, it will 
not be found, if there has been anything illicit in its disap- 



134 HAMILTON'S REVISION, THE EXEMPLAR OF AUTOGRAPH. 

pearance. If it shall be found, it will supersede this con- 
jecture as to the immediate exemplar of the autograpji copy; 
but there is quite enough in the original draught of Ham- 
ilton, compared with the autograph copy, to convert all the 
conjectures, which the recovery of that revision would 
supersede, into most reasonable certainty at the present 
time. 

I assume, therefore, as reasonably well proved, that Wash- 
ington wrote that autograph copy from the revision by Ham- 
ilton of his original draught, amended or corrected, which 
was sent to Washington on the 6th of September ; and that 
Washington copied the whole of that revision in extettso, as 
it was obviously his intention to do, when he wrote his letter 
to Hamilton of the 25th of August ; and that afterwards he 
cancelled and altered, as the cancelled passages and altered 
words, now restored by Mr. Lenox, or by his direction, will 
show. This, I repeat, is mere hypothesis ; but the appear- 
ances will be found to sustain it strongly ; and if they do not, 
the main question will stand as it did before the suggestion 
was made. 

There are one or two facts or appearances noticed by the 
proprietor of the autograph copy, which seem to cross this 
theory of a complete transfer of the revision into that copy 
in the first instance, before parts were cancelled. But, per- 
haps, for want of access to the original of the printed copy, 
they do not appear to me to be decisive ; and there are also 
several facts or appearances which seem to be irreconcilable 
with any other hypothesis, or with the actual condition of 
the autograph copy, as the printed copy from it shows it to 
be. I will consider the appearances or facts of each descrip- 
tion. 






SUGGESTIONS TO THE CONTRARY. 135 

There is nothing decisive in the fact which is noticed by 
the proprietor of the antograph copy, that some of " the alter a- 
" tions were evidently made during the writing of the paper " 
as " in these instances, a part and even the whole of a 
" sentence is struck out, which afterwards occurs in the body 
" of the Address." 

These changes are certainly few and partial, and they may 
have been made in the course of the writing, without con- 
ducing materially to the proof that this was generally the 
case with the other alterations. 

The only instances of this nature which I have discovered, 
though there may be others, are two, one on page 359 in 
Mr. living's Appendix, and the other on page 360. The 
last will be noticed in another place. On page 359, two 
lines are transferred from an earlier part of a sentence to the 
end of a paragraph, which is the end of the same sentence. 
It would probably require close inspection of the autograph 
to determine that this change had been made " during the 
" writing of the paper," and not afterwards. I do not mean 
to question the fact, for I have not examined the autograph 
in reference to this point ; but little if any more space would 
have been necessary for the insertion of the two lines can- 
celled, than is commonly left between paragraphs. 

But supposing that in this, and in the other instance to be 
noticed presently, Washington did transpose parts of a para- 
graph " in the course of writing," and even cancel a short 
paragraph, and write another leaving out a line or two of the 
first, there is strong countervailing evidence against this as 
being the general course. 

There are ten clauses in small type at the foot of the pages 
in Mr. Irving's Appendix which, by the Preface, are indi- 



136 ANSWERS TO THE SUGGESTIONS. 

cated as having been " struck out," I presume cancelled, in 
the body of the autograph, and now restored by careful 
examination, and placed at the bottom of the respective 
pages. 

One of these clauses on pages 362, 363, contains nineteen 
lines and a fraction in the small type. Another of them on 
pages 366, 367, contains nearly fifteen lines. A third on 
page 363, contains nearly eleven lines ; and the aggregate of 
all the lines of the clauses referred to as having been so 
struck out, and now restored and placed at foot, is a large 
fraction of a line more than sixty lines. All these lines 
were written in the body of the autograph, and then struck 
out or cancelled. If they had been printed in the Appendix 
in the same type with the body of the Address, they would 
have filled three full pages of it, or nearly one-fifth of the 
whole Address, as it now stands in Mr. Irving's Appendix. 
Of course, I do not mean to be understood as speaking with 
technical accuracy, for I have not asked the opinion of a 
printer in regard to this fact. It cannot be supposed, I 
think, that such masses as these were first written, and then 
cancelled in the course of the 'writing. 

There are two other clauses of like description in pages 
361, 366, which might be added to the ten, but I distinguish 
them to make a subsequent remark of my own more intel- 
ligible. 

The natural and most probable, if not certain course, of 
Washington, if it is regarded in the light of these clauses, 
was to write over the whole draught he was copying, includ- 
ing all of the clauses referred to, and then to go back and 
alter words, or strike out paragraphs, as he should think fit. 
To write out, and then to cancel, every part of these twelve 



ANSWERS CONTINUED. 137 

paragraphs, " in the course of writing," or " during the wri- 
ting," is a much less reasonable supposition. 

One striking fact in regard to all the clauses at the foot 
of the pages, is, that but one of them bears a trace of verbal 
alteration by Washington ; which is less than the most facile 
and felicitous writer must have made in the first draught 
of such long paragraphs. This only exception is on page 
366 of Mr. Irving's Appendix, where constitution is substi- 
tuted for order, and adherents for retainers. There must, I 
think, have been some intention of Washington to retain 
these paragraphs at the time these words were changed. The 
rest must all have been fairly transcribed by Washington 
into his autograph Address from the exemplar that was 
before him. It can be shown demonstrably that Washington 
did not compose any of the ten clauses referred to ; and 
therefore, if the supposition of his having made the cancella- 
tion " during the writing," is suggested to give a more usual 
appearance of authorship in Washington, it is of no avail ; 
for, except in a few of the rather self-justifying thoughts, 
Washington's authorship is not there, wherever else it may 
be. It was his further consideration of these thoughts that 
probably induced him to cancel more than one of these para- 
graphs ; and the rest, only because they added to the length 
of the Address. 

Another fact equally worthy of notice, is, that when the 
ten clauses first referred to were written and then struck 
out, nothing was substituted in their place, except in two 
instances, one on page 369, and the other on page 375. On 
page 369, a clause which was written on a separate piece of 
paper, is wafered on or over the passage that had been written 
in the autograph copy and then cancelled, and is now printed 



138 THE WAFERED PAPER ON EDUCATION. 

at foot. That wafered paper bears a clause which Wash- 
ington, by his letter of September 1st, requested Hamilton 
to introduce into his revision in regard to education gene- 
rally, in connection with the subject of a university parti- 
cularly; and suggested that a section comprehending both 
subjects " would come in very properly after the one which 
" relates to our religious obligations ; or, in a preceding part, 
" as one of the recommendatory measures to counteract the 
" evils arising from geographical discriminations." Hamil- 
ton, in his reply of September 4th, said, that " the idea of 
" the university" would be most properly reserved for Wash- 
ington's speech at the beginning of the session. " A general 
" suggestion," he said, " respecting education will very fitly 
" come into the Address." He introduced it, no doubt, in 
his revision, in the very place which Washington first pointed 
out, " after the clause which relates to our religious obliga- 
" tions ;" and there Washington has wafered it over a 
clause in recommendation of industry and frugality, which 
had been cancelled by him, and is now found at the foot of 
the printed page in Mr. Irving's Appendix. As Washington 
was specially concerned in this education clause, and could 
not have intended to omit it, the natural explanation of the 
wafered paper is, that in copying the revision into his auto- 
graph, perhaps from the education clause being written in 
the margin of Hamilton's rough revision, and only referred 
to by a mark of some kind in the place where it was to go, 
Washington overlooked the clause in copying, and had left 
no place in his copy-book for it, except by wafering it over 
a very good and rather necessary paragraph on the subject 
of industry and economy. 

This little fact is very significant in regard to the manner 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 139 

of copying the Address. The clause upon education was of 
great importance in Washington's estimation ; so much so, 
as to have been asked for by a special communication to 
Hamilton ; and it was to be the precursor of a recommenda- 
tion to Congress at its approaching session, to establish a 
national university. It must of necessity therefore appear 
in some proper place in the Address. It could not be omit- 
ted. It is not possible that Washington could have had any 
objection to the paragraph upon the subject of industry and 
frugality. Habits of this nature were not only of great 
importance to the people, but they were his own habits, ob- 
served by himself with due reference to his own station and 
fortune, and inculcated upon all his family and dependants. 
But more than this, it was a paragraph necessary to complete 
Hamilton's view of the moral virtues to be inculcated, after 
having given the first place to religion and morality in their 
more solemn acceptation. His abstract announced " industry 
" and economy," along with " religion and morals," as matters 
upon which the draught was further to dilate ; and so he 
introduced the notice in his original draught, and kept it in 
the revision. Why was so good a paragraph obliterated, by 
wafering over it the clause upon education I 

There is a little contrivance in some printing offices and 
factories which consume much water, by which it is shown 
when the supply pump has filled the cistern. It is a float on 
the water, and is sometimes called a telltale: for when it 
shows itself above the top of the cistern, it is seen to bear a 
label in pretty large letters, " Stop the pump." The wafered 
clause over the paragraph on industry and economy, is a tell- 
tale. It says that the copy-book was full, and that there was 
no place to put it in where Washington had suggested it ought 



140 CANCELLED PASSAGES IN AUTOGRAPH COPY 

to go, but by wafering it over the not so indispensably ne- 
cessary clause in regard to industry and economy ; and yet 
this clause was eight pages distant from the close of the Ad- 
dress. This is not demonstration, certainly, that the whole 
copy was made before the cancellations were begun, but it is 
an inducement or persuasion to that opinion. 

But much better than these remarks to show that Wash- 
ington did make that autograph copy from the revision before 
he altered it, is the existence of a previous draught which it 
closely follows in paragraphs, subjects, language, and above 
all in the order of place or position of every part ; which 
previous draught was amended and revised by its author be- 
fore the, autograph was made, and was so written, at Wash- 
ington's instance, as to be readily followed in a copy for the 
press, and which revision was in Washington's hands before 
the autograph was begun, and was intended to revise the 
previous amended draught, — not to alter its substance or 
order, nor to add to it in any known particular, except that 
which the wafered paper on education exhibits. More than 
finite probabilities, as we have suggested, show that the ex- 
emplar was in that paper, — the revision , and that this was 
the model from which the autograph was first written in ex- 
tenso, and then altered as far as it was altered. We can, 
however, confirm and add to these probabilities, by con- 
sidering the character of Washington's alterations of the 
autograph copy. 

The ten clauses referred to, amounting together to sixty 
lines and a fraction more, which have been restored since can- 
cellation, and are now placed at the foot of the pages in the 
Appendix, are one and all of them, in point of origin, derived 
from Hamilton's original draught, each one of them having 



DERIVED FROM HAMILTON'S ORIGINAL DRAUGHT. 141 

been altered verbally, and not otherwise, by Hamilton's 
amended copy, or revision, as we have a right to infer, 
because the touch of Washington's pen does not appear upon 
them, except in the two words on page 366, before referred 
to. All these clauses, after being carried into the autograph 
copy, were cancelled in the places where Hamilton's original 
draught had placed them, the preceding and succeeding para- 
graphs not being cancelled, but remaining in that autograph 
copy precisely as they do in Hamilton's draught. It maybe 
said of all the clauses which were cancelled by Washington, 
that they are not surpassed in truth or pertinency by perhaps 
any which were not cancelled. Some of them were founded 
upon express suggestion by Washington in his preparatory 
draught ; and the most probable motive for cancelling any 
of them, — such of them at least as gave no offence to his 
modesty, — was to abridge the length of the Address. The 
cancellation of one of them appears to have been a necessity, 
through oversight, because his copy-book was already full, 
and there was no space left for the education clause. He was 
therefore compelled to wafer it over the clause upon frugality 
and economy, which Washington would hardly have yielded 
to anything but to the clause upon which he had specially 
instructed Hamilton. The cancelled and restored para- 
graphs, which were derived in point of origin from Ham- 
ilton's original draught, may be seen in the reprint of the 
autograph copy, in the Appendix to this Inquiry, where the 
margin opposite to each paragraph respectively, refers to the 
page of Hamilton's original draught in the same Appendix, 
where the clause of origin will be found inclosed within 
brackets. 

I present in this place, as an illustration, one of the longest 



142 INSTANCE OF ONE OF SUCH PASSAGES. 

clauses which were so cancelled in the autograph copy, and 

is now restored, and placed at the foot of the reprint, in 

Mr. Irving's work, in pages 362, 363, together with the 
corresponding clause in Hamilton's original draught. 

RESTORED PARAGRAPH FROM HAMILTON S ORIGINAL 

AUTOGRAPH COPY. DRAUGHT. 

Besides the more serious causes al- Besides the more serious causes which, 
ready hinted as threatening our Union, have been hinted at, as endangering 
there is one less dangerous, but suffi- our Union, there is another less dan- 
ciently dangerous to make it prudent to gerous, but against which it is necessary 
be upon our guard against it. I allude to be on our guard : I mean the petu- 
to the petulance of party differences of lance of party differences of opinion, 
opinion. It is not uncommon to hear It is not uncommon to hear the irrita- 
the irritations which these excite vent tions which these excite vent themselves 
themselves in declarations that the dif- in declarations that the different parts of 
ferent parts of the United States are ill- the Union are ill-assorted, and cannot 
affected to each other, in menaces that remain together — in menaces from the 
the Union will be dissolved by this or inhabitants of one part to those of ano- 
that measure. Intimations like these ther, that it will be dissolved by this or 
are as indiscreet as they are intempe- that measure. Intimations of the kind 
rate. Though frequently made with le- are as indiscreet as they are intempe- 
vity, and without any really evil inten- rate. Though frequently made with le- 
tion, they have a tendency to produce vitv, and without being in earnest, they 
the consequences which they indicate, have a tendency to produce the con- 
They teach the minds of men to consider sequence which they indicate. They 
the Union as precarious : — as an object teach the minds of men to consider the 
to which they ought not to attach their Union as precarious, as an object to 
hopes and fortunes 5 — and thus chill the which they are not to attach their hopes 
sentiment in its favor. By alarming the and fortunes, and thus weaken the sen- 
pride of those to whom they are ad- timent in its favor. By rousing the 
dressed, they set ingenuity at work to resentment, and alarming the pride of 
depreciate the value of the thing, and to those to whom they are addressed, they 
discover reasons of indifference towards set ingenuity to work to depreciate the 
it. This is not wise. It will be much value of the object, and to discover 
wiser to habituate ourselves to reverence motives of indifference to it. This is 
the Union as the palladium of our na- not wise. Prudence demands that we 
tional happiness; to accommodate our should habituate ourselves in all our 



OTHER PASSAGES REFERRED TO. 143 

words and actions to that idea, and to words and actions to reverence the 
discountenance whatever may suggest a Union as a sacred and inviolable pal- 
suspicion that it can in any event be ladiura of our happiness ; and should 
abandoned. — Irving 1 s Washington, vol. discountenance whatever can lead to a 
v, p. 362. suspicion that it can in any event be 

abandoned. — Hamilton 1 s Works, vol. vii, 

p. 581. 

These altogether verbal differences are such as a writer 
might make in his own composition when amending or re- 
vising it ; and the greater part of them at least are such as no 
one but the author would think of. If this paragraph has 
been accurately restored at the foot of the reprint of the 
autograph copy in Mr. Irving's Appendix, Washington's pen 
has not altered a word of it before he cancelled it. 

I might add to the ten clauses referred to, another clause, 
the last which Washington cancelled, and which has been 
restored and placed at the foot of pages 376, 377. It stood 
the last in the Farewell Address until it was cancelled, and 
was the very last in Hamilton's original draught ; but Wash- 
ington prepared the last clause now standing in the Farewell 
Address, from the first cancelled clause from Hamilton's 
revision, which may be found at the foot of page 357 of Mr. 
Irving's Appendix. 

The two other clauses which I distinguished from the ten, 
to make my remark concerning them more intelligible, are 
to be found, the first of them at the foot of page 360. That 
clause which, for the reasons already given, I infer to have been 
taken from Hamilton's revision, is not merely a verbal altera- 
tion of the corresponding clause in Hamilton's, original 
draught, but is a reconstruction of a clause of that draught, 
in the same relative place, first commenced by Hamilton in 
his amended copy sent to Washington the 30th July, placed 



144 



A PARAGRAPH RECONSTRUCTED FROM THE REVISION. 



probably in the same state in his correction of Washington's 
draught sent to him the 10th August, and further enlarged 
in his revision sent the 6th September. Washington has 
struck Hamilton's revised clause from the end of a paragraph, 
and has put in its place a clause almost identical with it, 
omitting but a single line. This is the second of the in- 
stances, so far as I have discovered, which bear upon the 
inquiry suggested by the Preface to the autograph copy in 
Mr. Irving's work, whether Washington made the altera- 
tions in his autograph "during the writing" or after the 
entire copy was made. To show the extent of the change, 
the clause in Hamilton's original draught, enlarged in Ham- 
ilton's correction of Washington's draught, and still further 
extended in what I infer to be Hamilton's revision, and the 
clause as it stands in the Farewell Address, are here pre- 
sented in parallel columns. 



HAMILTON. 

ORIGINAL DRAUGHT AND 
CORRECTION OF WASHING- 
TON'S DRAUGHT. 

that you would cherish to- 
wards it an affectionate 
and inviolable attachment, 
and that you should watch 
for its preservation with 
zealous solicitude. 

[Hamilton's Amended 
Draught of Washington.'] 

that you should habituate 
yourselves to think and 
speak of it as the palladium 
of your prosperity, and 



HAMILTON. 



REVISION. 

that you should cherish to- 
wards it a cordial and im- 
movable attachment ; that 
you should accustom your- 
selves to reverence it as the 
palladium of your poli- 
tical safety and prosperity, 
adapting constantly your 
words and actions to that 
momentous idea ; that you 
should watch for its pre- 
servation with zealous 
anxiety, discountenance 
whatever may suggest or 



WASHINGTON. 

FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

that you should cherish a 
cordial, habitual, and im- 
movable attachment to it, 
accustoming yourselves to 
think and speak of it as the 
palladium of your political 
safety and prosperity * * 



watching for its preserva- 
tion with jealous anxiety, 
discountenancing what- 
ever may suggest even a 
suspicion that it can in any 



THE SAME SUBJECT. 145 

should frown upon what- suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and 

ever may lead to suspicion event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon 

that it can in any event be frown upon the first dawn- the first dawning of every 

abandoned. ingof any attempt to alien- attempt to alienate any 

ate any portion of our portion of our country from 

country from the rest, or the rest, or to enfeeble the 

to enfeeble the sacred ties sacred ties which now link 

which now link together together the several parts. 

the several parts. 

Of course such an alteration as this does not affect the 
question of authorship, but it affects the secondary question 
of the time and manner of Washington's alteration. If the 
right hand paragraph is written in the autograph after the 
middle or cancelled paragraph, and not by interlineation , then 
if no blank space had been left for it, it must have been 
done when the autograph was in the course of being written, 
and not after it had been completely copied in the order of 
the revision. If there had been a blank space left, or the 
new paragraph was interlined, then the opposite consequence 
follows. The Preface says there are many interlineations, 
but does not indicate them distributively, and does not say 
whether this was or was not one of them. It is a point of 
little importance, except in the history of the autograph. 

The last of the two clauses I distinguished from the ten, 
is at page 366 ; and it is quite an interesting alteration, and 
must have received much consideration on the part of Wash- 
ington. We shall insert here, in parallel columns, three 
clauses : one from Hamilton's original draught as it stands ; 
another, as we infer, from Hamilton's amended copy, or 
revision ; and in a third column, from Washington's auto- 
graph, the passage in the paragraph which Washington 
inserted after striking out a part of the paragraph contained, 
within brackets in the middle column : — 

10 



146 



ANOTHER PARAGRAPH REFORMED. 



HAMILTON. 

ORIGINAL DRAUGHT. 

And remember also, that 
for the efficacious manage- 
ment of your common in- 
terests, in a country so ex- 
tensive as ours, a govern- 
ment of as much force and 
strength as is consistent 
with the perfect security 
of liberty, is indispensable. 
Liberty itself will find in 
such a government, with 
powers properly distribu- 
ted and arranged, its surest 
guardian and protector. — 
[In my opinion, the real 
danger in our system is, 
that the general govern- 
ment, organized as at pre- 
sent, will prove too weak 
rather than too powerful.] 
— Hamilton's Works, vol. 
vii, p. 584. 



HAMILTON. 

AMENDED AND REVISED. 

And remember especial- 
ly, that for the efficient ma- 
nagement of your common 
interests, in a country so 
extensive as ours, a gov- 
ernment of as much vigor 
as is consistent with the 
perfect security of liberty, 
is indispensable. Liberty 
itself will find in such a 
government, with powers 
properly distributed and 
adjusted, its surest guar- 
dian. [Owing to you as I 
do a frank and free disclo- 
sure of my heart, I shall 
not conceal from you the 
belief I entertain, that your 
government, as at present 
constituted, is far more 
likely to prove too feeble 
than too powerful.] — 5 Ir- 
ving's Washington, 366. 



WASHINGTON. 

AUTOGRAPH. 

And remember especial- 
ly, that for the efficient ma- 
nagement of your common 
interests, in a country so 
extensive as ours, a gov- 
ernment of as much vigor 
as is consistent with the 
perfect security of liberty, 
is indispensable. Liberty 
itself will find in such a go- 
vernment, with powers pro- 
perly distribuced and ad- 
justed, its surest guardian. 
[It is indeed little less than 
a name, where the govern- 
ment is too feeble to with- 
stand the enterprises of 
faction, to confine each 
member of the society 
within the limits prescrib- 
ed by the laws, and to 
maintain all in the secure 
and tranquil enjoyment of 
the rights of person and 
property.] — Ibid. 



Washington's own clause within brackets in the right 
hand column, has perhaps some advantages in point of ex- 
pression over both the others. It implies the same truth 
which the others strongly express ; and in its terms, as a 
conclusion from the premises just before stated, it is an 
equally explicit truth ; while it keeps back the declaration 
of an abstract opinion, which might have been misunderstood 
by reason of its generality, and extensively perverted by 



ALLUSION TO THE FEEBLENESS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 147 

misapplication. It gives out, at the same time, a definite 
opinion in favor of a government of more strength, by illus- 
trations which few would refuse to receive as evidences of 
constitutional weakness, and which was felt in some of the 
trying periods of Washington's administration. 

This is the clause in which, I suppose, Washington meant 
to express, or at least to include, his dissent from what is 
now the principle of State rights, — that the only constitu- 
tional powers of the United States are such as are expressly 
given in the Constitution, or are necessarily implied from 
those which are expressly given ; a principle which, in re- 
gard to the Constitution of a Nation, the Supreme power of 
the Union, one of the co-equal powers of the world, would 
seem to be more reasonably applied to the restraints which 
are expressed in it, than to the powers themselves. In 
regard to three great examples under the treaty-making 
power, the acquisitions of Louisiana and of parts of Mexico, 
and the boundary treaty with England, the principle of 
express power, or necessary implication, seems to have had 
but little play in abridging the fairly implied powers of the 
Constitution. The main effect of that principle upon internal 
legislation, seems hitherto to have been felt, and, probably, 
will always be most sensibly felt, in the generation of par- 
ties, which will make a feeble government, whatever the 
Constitution may have intended. If it succeeds finally and 
completely, it will look very much like what, in early times, 
would have been called an anti-Federal triumph after a 
Federal victory, which the adoption of the Constitution by 
the States was acknowledged by all parties to have been. 

The remaining instances of interposed new paragraphs by 
Washington call for little remark. The three paragraphs 



148 OTHER ALTERATIONS IN AUTOGRAPH COPY. 

upon the right, the duty, and the inducements of interest, to 
issue and maintain the proclamation of neutrality, are, one 
of them probably, an alteration of Hamilton's revision ; and 
the other two, perhaps, are Washington's, though this is not 
clear. Neither of the three was in Hamilton's original 
draught, though a blank space was left in that part, which 
Hamilton possibly rilled up in his amended copy, or in his 
revision ; but, in the autograph, Washington wrote out 
the first paragraph, and, from a certain point, cancelled 
it, and interlined several lines. He then wrote, on a 
separate piece of paper, a paragraph in substitution of the 
whole, — having, nevertheless, the same substance, and 
wafered it over both the original and the interlined 
words, — making a note on the margin in these words : 
" This is the first draught, and it is questionable which of 
" the two is to be preferred." Of course, this wafering must 
have occurred after the entire address had been copied. If 
this is written on the margin of the wafered paper, the first 
draught was probably Hamilton's ; but, if it was written on 
the margin of the copy-book, I am at fault. The other two, 
which have not been altered in any respect, may have been 
written by either; but the good old Doric phrase, "humanly 
speaking," in the last of the three, is more like Washington 
than Hamilton. 

The penultimate clause of the draught before him, which 
Washington has cancelled, he has excluded as having "the 
" appearance of self-distrust and mere vanity ;" as, for a like 
reason, he had obliterated a preceding one, " to avoid the 
" imputation of affected modesty." Such alterations might 
be thought to prove that Washington was revising what 
another had indited, and not what he had composed himself. 



SAME SUBJECT. 149 

But the concluding pages of Washington's own draught, 
which may be seen in the Appendix, have satisfied me that 
this is not decisive. 

This penultimate clause of the draught, as it has been 
restored and placed at the foot of the page in Mr. Irving's 
Appendix, has not been altered in a single word ; but a por- 
tion of it has been carried into the last paragraph of Wash- 
ington's Farewell Address, which was probably written by 
himself, and is a substitute for the last paragraph in Hamil- 
ton's original draught. Hamilton himself, perhaps, threw 
the two last paragraphs of the original draught into one, of 
which Washington has taken a part and rejected a part, and, 
adopting one thought from the rejected part, has made a 
final paragraph for himself. The concluding part of Wash- 
ington's own draught supplied a portion of these thoughts. 
In these minute particulars, the criticisms must be received 
as conjectural, especially as the original autograph is not 
now before me. 

The alterations in the body of the printed copy of the 
autograph, not noticed in the preceding remarks, are gene- 
rally verbal, striking out a word or two, and putting in one 
or two others. In the twenty-one pages of Mr. Irving's 
reprint, there are five several pages, in three of which there 
is no such alteration ; in another of them, three words, and, 
in the other, two are struck out, and different, but equiva- 
lent, words substituted. On the other pages there are more 
of them, as the for a, against for from, customary for usual, 
sparingly for little, shunning for avoiding, permanent, invete- 
rate for rooted, an for a, to lessen the aspirate in habitual, 
and others of like kind, not always to the improvement 
of the language ; and, at least, in one instance, to the 



150 SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

effect of making public opinion co-operate in the discharge 
of public debts, instead of coinciding with it, which was 
Hamilton's word and meaning. The pages untouched by 
Washington's pen in this manner, I presume to be Hamil- 
ton's original draught, corrected, amended, and revised by 
Hamilton himself. The remaining pages I suppose to be 
the same revision, altered verbally, just as Washington 
appears to have altered them in his autograph copy, and no 
further. 

If this has not been demonstrated in an absolute sense, 
the proof falls short of it only by the absence of Hamilton's 
revision, — the original draught, however, so far supplying 
its place, that no living man, nor all the men upon earth 
combined, could have written such a paper as Washington's 
Farewell Address, without the guidance of that original 
draught, or of a draught made from it, with just such verbal 
corrections of the original as we know came into Washing- 
ton's hands before the autograph copy was made. If this is 
not the highest degree of argumental evidence, it is the next 
door to it, and is the highest practical proof. 

Mr. Sparks's view of these alterations has, no doubt, been 
affected by his not being aware, at that time, of the exist- 
ence of Hamilton's original draught, and, in some degree 
also, by Mr. Jay's opinion of the extent of Hamilton's work 
in the Farewell Address. But Mr. Jay was under a denser 
cloud than Mr. Sparks; and the imperfect light that Mr. 
Jay followed was moreover a deceptive light. So it appears 
to me ; and Mr. Jay has contributed, unintentionally, much 
more than Mr. Sparks, to turn the eyes of impartial men 
from the consideration of the evidence, as it has from time 
to time, subsequently, appeared; though the death of Mr. 



151 



Jay, in 1829, before the publication of Hamilton's draught, 
and Washington's letters to Hamilton, probably prevented 
its having appeared to him. 

It is very singular, that so harmless an inquiry as the 
question of the authorship of the Farewell Address, which 
Mr. Jay's letter first noticed in a formal examination in 
1811, and which Mr. Sparks considered, upon other grounds, 
in 1837, the year in which his edition of Washington's 
Writings was completed, should have been inseparably 
blended, from the first of these dates, — the purport of Mr. 
Jay's letter having been known, though not published 
by his son until 1833, — with considerations that affected 
the honor of Hamilton on the one side, and the delicacy of 
Washington on the other ; — Hamilton, as having preserved 
a draught which he ought to have destroyed, and Wash- 
ington, as having retained the reputation of a higher finish 
in this work than in his letters (this is Mr. Jay's language), 
although it was not his own. These considerations resulted, 
directly or reflectively, from Mr. Jay's very strongly ex- 
pressed opinion that the Farewell Address was a personal 
act, and that Washington only could with propriety write it. 
He might, Mr. Jay admits, have naturally submitted his 
composition to the judgment of friends, before he put the 
last hand to it. They might have advised certain transpo- 
sitions ; "if the connection between any of the relative 
" parts was obscure, they would make it more apparent ; if 
" a conclusion had better be left to implication than ex- 
" pressed, they would strike it out, and so vice versa ; if an 
" additional remark or allusion would give force or light to 
" a sentiment or proposition, they would propose it ; where 
" a sentence was too long, they would divide it ; they would 



152 AND OF THE EXTENT TO WHICH WASHINGTON 

" correct redundancies ; change words less apt, for words 
" more apt, &c. &c. &c. To correct a composition in this 
" way, is to do a friendly office ; but to prepare a new one, 
" and offer it to the author as a substitute for his own, 
" would deserve a different appellation." Jays Life, vol. ii, 
page 343. 

This distinction, in itself a rather shadowy one, was not 
in Washington's mind at all. He submitted thoughts and 
principles as heads or points in the Farewell Address to Mr. 
Madison, and asked him to write it out from beginning to end ; 
and Mr. Madison did so. He asked Hamilton to correct 
and amend the preparatory draught, which constituted the 
preserved paper, made partly of Madison's draught and 
partly of his own composition, but gave Hamilton plain 
authority, if he did not by implication invite him, to put the 
sentiments of the preserved paper into a new plan and in a 
different form. Washington's opinion was demonstrably 
different on this head, from Mr. Jay's. He asked assistance 
in what Mr. Jay regarded the exceptionable form, from Mr. 
Madison, and he opened the door to it widely for Hamilton. 
He made no secret to one of the two eminent men, that he 
had asked and obtained it from the other ; and he meant by 
the preserved paper, his preparatory draught, to bring to the 
knowledge of the world the privity of Madison with a por- 
tion of that draught, being quite indifferent to the opinion 
they might form of the degree to which that privity had 
extended. 

Mr. Jay moreover distinguished betweeen an official paper 
and the Farewell Address ; but Washington made no such 
distinction. Mr. Jay distinguished between cases in which 
a secretary of the proper department might prepare a paper, 



MIGHT PROPERLY ASK ASSISTANCE. 153 

and the President sign it, from cases in which Washington 
alone shonld prepare the paper and sign ; but Washington 
did not observe this distinction in regard to executive 
speeches or messages to Congress, — the most striking of his 
public papers. He made no secret of asking assistance in 
his speeches to Congress, and asked it of Madison, who was 
never in the cabinet until after Washington had retired from 
office, and of Hamilton, after he had left Washington's 
cabinet to return to the profession of the law. Mr. Jay's 
distinction was the formal but perfectly unlimited one, be- 
tween writing an address, and correcting or amending it 
after it was written. Washington's better distinction was 
the substantial one, between contributing the fundamental 
or leading thoughts of a public paper, which it was essential 
to him should be his own, and the almost arbitrary forms of 
expressing them, which he had no hesitation in committing 
to the skill of a trusted friend. I do not speak of his ge- 
neral practice or habits, but of the distinctions in his mind. 
In fine, though Mr. Jay was very able to measure Washing- 
ton in some of his largest dimensions, he does not seem in 
his letter to Judge Peters to have measured him accurately 
in the largest of them all, — the dimensions of that extraor- 
dinary judgment, which suppressed all personal vanity in 
himself, if he ever had any, estimated with perfect good sense 
and wisdom all the real values that were in him or around 
him, neither being misled nor misleading anybody by pre- 
tensions of any kind, and seeking truth and the best forms of 
communicating it, from the friend who could best impart them 
to him, for the benefit of the country. He was undoubtedly 
modest ; but it is certain that he never fell short of his duty 
or the expectations of the country by his modesty ; and it is 



154 EFFECT OF MR. JAY'S VIEW. 

also certain, that if every line of his pen in his communica- 
tions to Congress or to the people was traced to some other 
person, it would not abate his glory, or the honor and love 
of this people, a single iota. If his great modesty has con- 
tributed to the lustre of his immense elevation, as it un- 
doubtedly has, it will be difficult to prove that he had too 
much of it. 

All the prejudices which have existed in regard to the 
authorship of the Farewell Address, seem to have proceeded 
from jealousy of Hamilton, or from this hypothesis of Mr. 
Jay ; but how entirely Mr. Jay's imperfect information led 
him into the adoption and statement of it, may easily be 
made obvious. 

Judge Peter s's letter had conveyed to Mr. Jay " the first 
and only information" he had received, " that a copy of Pre- 
sident Washington's Address had been found among the 
papers of General Hamilton, and in his handwriting, and 
that a certain gentleman hacl also a copy of it in the same 
handwriting." Of course it would be assumed by some per- 
sons, that Hamilton had made two copies of the Farewell 
Address, and had kept one, and given away another, to fur- 
nish the future proof of his authorship. It was upon this 
hint, and possibly, though not certainly, with something like 
this interpretation of it, that Mr. Jay wrote his reply to 
Judge Peters, of the 29th March, 1811, which appears in 
the work of Mr. Jay's son. 

Every man of experience must be aware of this truth — 
and the writer of this Inquiry hopes, that wherever his in- 
ferences from evidence may call for its application, he will 
be regarded as having a full consciousness of it — that if an 
observer of half a truth proceeds incautiously to infer the 



EFFECT OF MR. JAY'S VIEW. 155 

whole truth from it, the half truth is just as likely to lead 
him wrong as right, and that half a fact is even more so. 

We now know that General Hamilton left no copy of the 
Farewell Address in his handwriting, but only his original 
rough draught of such an address, which was found among 
his papers, and is now in the Department of State; that 
there was a corrected copy and revision of that original 
draught, also in his handwriting, which he sent to Wash- 
ington, and which did not come back. In all probability, 
therefore, it remained among Washington's papers, on the 
sarrte subject, until his death ; and therefore, if any person 
had in his hands another paper which purported to be a 
copy of the Farewell Address, and was in Hamilton's hand- 
writing, it was this corrected and revised copy of the origi- 
nal draught. 

It must have been obtained consequently from Washing- 
ton's papers, and from this source only ; and those only, who 
had the custody of Washington's papers at and after the 
time of his death, can be called upon to explain the circum- 
stance, if it be true. 

It is not surprising that the name of the certain person 
who possessed another copy was not disclosed, possibly not 
by Judge Peters, certainly not by Mr. Jay in his reply ; and 
this gave an air of mystery to the circumstance ; and the 
odium of that mystery, whatever it was, was reflected upon 
General Hamilton, as is made obvious by Mr. Jay's letter. 
And it thus happened that, in complete ignorance of every 
fact in the case, except one, and that a misleading fact, that 
Hamilton had read to Jay Washington's draught, " written 
" over with such amendments, alterations, and corrections," as 
Hamilton thought advisable, Mr. Jay proceeded to make 



156 MR. jay's imperfect knowledge of facts. 

out what may be called a record, for posterity. Unfortu- 
nately, it was worse than labor lost, for it was labor unin- 
tentionally productive of evil. No man would regret it more 
than Mr. Jay himself, if he were living. 

Mr. Jay, at that time, and, doubtless, to the end of his 
life, was wholly ignorant of the following most material 
facts, which have been already exhibited to the reader: 1. 
That Washington had written a long and explicit letter to 
Mr. Madison, on the 20th May, 1792, requesting him, at 
that time, to write a Farewell Address, if he approved the 
measure, and making large suggestions to him on the sub- 
ject. 2. That Madison had replied to that letter, on the 
20th June, 1792, and sent to Washington a draught, con- 
taining those expressions in regard to Washington's " very 
" fallible judgment," and " the inferiority of his qualifica- 
" tions," which strike everybody who reads the Farewell 
Address, and irresistibly impressed Mr. Jay with the 
belief, that no man could have written an address which 
contained those words, except Washington himself. 3. That 
Washington had applied to Hamilton personally, in the 
spring of 1796, to " redress" the draught which Washington 
himself had prepared; and that, on the 15th May of that 
year, he wrote to Hamilton, sending him the paper, and 
requesting to correct it, and giving him also authority to 
write it over anew upon the plan he thought best, founding 
it upon the sentiments contained in Washington's paper; 
and that Hamilton had executed the last power referred to, 
before his interview with Jay, — the execution of that power 
being a matter which concerned Hamilton alone until Wash- 
ington should approve it, and which Hamilton thought 
proper to submit to Washington only. 4. That Hamilton, 



157 



before his interview with Jay, had already, on the 30th July, 
sent to Washington that new form of a Farewell Address ; 
and, in the letter which inclosed it, promised to send him, 
in a fortnight, Washington's own draught, corrected upon 
the general plan of it. 5. That the matter upon which he, 
Mr. Jay, was consulted, on behalf of Washington by Hamil- 
ton, was only one of the objects of Washington's letter of the 
15th May, this correction of Washington's draught, and 
did not comprehend the other — the writing it over anew — 
upon the plan Hamilton should think best. 

If Mr. Jay had known these several matters, he would 
have had an outline of all the heads of material facts up to 
the time of his interview with Hamilton. But he was not 
aware of any one of them ; nor was it necessary that he 
should be, to enable him to assist in the correction or amend- 
ment of Washington's draught, which was an entirely sepa- 
rate and independent matter. Nevertheless, in this imper- 
fect state of his knowledge or information, — perfect enough 
for the performance of the office Mr. Jay was asked to per- 
form in Washington's behalf, — but wholly insufficient to 
enlighten him in regard to Hamilton's draught, or to Wash- 
ington's previous communications with Madison, Mr. Jay 
proceeded to express a definite opinion upon the whole mat- 
ter of the authorship of the Farewell Address. 1. He gave 
an explicit opinion upon the general proposition, that the 
Farewell Address was a personal act of Washington, and 
that nobody else could, with propriety, be its author. 2. 
That it was not likely that Hamilton, or any other person 
but Washington, was the author, because Washington was 
perfectly able to write it himself. 3. That if it was , " pos- 
" sible to find a man among those whom Washington es- 



158 EXCUSE FOR MR. JAY'S IMPRESSION. 

"teemed, capable of offering him such a present'"' as an 
address, which contained what the Farewell Address does 
contain, — the broadest avowals of his very fallible judgment, 
and the inferiority of his qualifications, — " it was impossible 
" to believe that President Washington was the man to 
" whom such a present would be acceptable." 

The presumptive internal evidence from the Farewell Ad- 
dress, combined with that of Washington's ability, which 
Mr. Jay argues at large in his letter, and very well, and the 
direct evidence arising from that interview with Hamilton, 
therefore resulted to impress Mr. Jay's mind with the con- 
viction, most necessarily implied by his whole letter, though 
not, I believe, anywhere in it expressly stated, that Wash- 
ington was the sole author of the Farewell Address, such 
corrections or amendments of it only excepted as Hamilton 
had read in that interview, and some of little importance, 
which had been made by both the parties in the course of it. 
But it gives me pleasure to add that, considering the lapse 
of time between the date of that interview, in 1796, and Mr. 
Jay's letter, in 1811, there is a very reasonable excuse for 
Mr. Jay's regarding the corrections and emendations of 
Washington's draught by Hamilton, as having gone into the 
published Farewell Address ; because almost all the correc- 
tions of Washington's draught contain the same thoughts, 
expressed in nearly the same language, as in Hamilton's 
original draught, and most probably in the amended copy 
Hamilton sent to Washington. I am very happy to suppose 
that these important passages in the published Farewell 
Address, contributed to recall the corrections or emendations 
of Washington's draught, which Hamilton had read to him, 
and to strengthen Mr. Jay's belief that the Farewell Ad- 



MR. JAY'S WISDOM AXD PURITY. 159 

dress was identically Washington's draught corrected by 
Hamilton. But in volume as well as plan, the original 
draught of Hamilton, and the corrected draught of Wash- 
ington, were entirely unlike ; and some long passages which 
Hamilton may have left in the corrected draught of Wash- 
ington, are excluded altogether from his own, particularly 
those on the subject of political calumny and party abuse, 
which squared better with parts of Washington's plan than 
they did with his own, and which are therefore excluded 
from it. 

There were few wiser men in this country, and no purer 
man anywhere, than John Jay. There is a halo round his 
venerable head, which we recollect, that makes it exceed- 
ingly painful to represent him as having erred so capitally 
in his conclusions, from the partial evidence before him; 
especially as his professional astuteness, and the wariness of 
his judgment, in judicial or quasi-judicial cases of import- 
ance, was one of his eminent characteristics. Something, 
perhaps, in Judge Peters's letter to Mr. Jay may have 
tended to narrow the scope of his inquiry, or a little to 
surprise his accurate judgment in this matter; but I have 
looked in vain to the Life of Mr. Jay by his son, and else- 
where, for further elucidation of the subject. 

It is from this letter, perhaps, — probably from Judge 
Peters's exhibition of it, or repetition of its contents, at a 
day several years before the publication of Mr. Jay's Life 
by his son, — that has arisen the uncomfortable feeling I 
have adverted to, in regard to the authorship of the Fare- 
well Address, and with it the opinion or sentiment of Mr. 
Sparks, that in some way it concerned the honor of Ham- 
ilton, to destroy all traces of his connection with it. 



160 HAMILTON'S COURSE IN REGARD TO HIS ROUGH ORIGINALS. 

There is not the least evidence in the world that the obli- 
teration of such traces ever entered into the heart or mind 
of Washington ; and no man of understanding who shall 
carry or trace back such a thought to its root or principle, 
can fail to perceive that it will infer a weakness in Wash- 
ington, that is out of keeping with his whole life, and with 
the explicit language of the Farewell Address itself. 

Hamilton appears to have preserved the abstract and 
original rough draught, because there was no motive to 
destroy them. He could not have destroyed them with the 
supposed motive, without feeling his own respect for Wash- 
ington in some degree impaired by the motive. He kept 
them, as he kept the original draughts of some of the clauses 
he had prepared for Washington's speeches, as a record of 
his own sentiments, and as a part of the transactions of his 
political life. He kept no copy of his corrections of Wash- 
ington's draught, nor of the amended copy of his own 
draught, nor of the revision of that draught, nor of any of 
his letters to Washington on this subject, nor indeed of any- 
thing in regard to it, for the two papers he left behind him were 
not copies, but the rough originals. This was all that Ham- 
ilton did. He did not destroy them ; that is all. Privacy at 
the time was material, as the correspondence shows, because 
the purpose of Washington to retire, was intended to be held 
in reserve, for public reasons, until the last moment. Ham- 
ilton expressly advised him to this effect. It is from this 
cause, perhaps, that no more copies were taken. Hamilton's 
own engagements and want of health prevented his making 
them, and the employment of a clerk would have endangered 
a disclosure of Washington's purpose. The originals of 
Washington's letters he preserved, as he probably did or 



Hamilton's reserve as to his draught. 161 

ought to have done, all that had ever been addressed to him 
by that venerated hand. And this was the extent of his 
provision. After Hamilton's lamented death, — I place im- 
plicit confidence in the family tradition — it was not any of 
his family who discovered the rough original draught, but it 
was an eminent public man, to whom access to Hamilton's 
political papers was allowed, and who found it in one of 
the pigeon-holes of his cabinet. And thus it came to the 
world. 

Such reserve and delicacy as Hamilton observed in regard 
to the assistance, Washington may have expected, and it is 
commonly expected in like cases. He may have expected, 
that, for the time then present, and perhaps while he was 
living, publication would not afford occasion of gossip or 
invidious party criticism, and become an instrument in the 
hands of party to weaken the influence of his counsels, by 
attributing them to the management of others ; which, those 
who lived in that day may remember, there were men enough, 
high and low, well disposed to insinuate, without any proof 
or shadow of proof. A reserve of this kind may have been 
patriotically desirable, without the least infusion of vanity ; 
and something of this nature may constitute the true limita- 
tion of reserve in all cases of like assistance by a minister or 
friend to a public chief, expressing his sentiments in his own 
name, whether officially or unofficially, to any part of the 
country, or to the people at large. I cannot, I think, be 
mistaken in the sentiment, that if Washington had desired 
more than this, it would have been a weakness ; and that if 
Hamilton had practised more than this, it would have been 
a derogatory suspicion. To annex the pains of dishonor to 
the preservation of a paper by the assisting party, would not 

11 



162 Washington's preservation of all the papers 

only in this case misconceive the views of the party assisted, 
as they will immediately appear, but would in all cases 
encircle the office of a friend with thorns, which might fatally 
wound his character, whether a paper was accidentally or 
intentionally preserved by him ; and would end in depriving 
all public chiefs of such aid, by surrounding it with insuffer- 
able penalties. Whatever may be thought of the general 
rule or principle, however, Washington's own course demon- 
strates infallibly the existence of an exception in this case, 
which he was competent to establish, and did establish, com- 
prehending and justifying the course of Hamilton, whether 
it was accidental or intentional. And this is shown by a 
species of evidence quite irresistible. 

Washington preserved copies and originals of all the 
papers and correspondence, on the subject of the Farewell 
Address, from his first application to Mr. Madison, in 1792, 
down to the publication of that Address, in 1796. 

He preserved a copy of his letter to Mr. Madison, and 
the original of Madison's letter of 20th June, 1792, in reply. 
Either Washington preserved them, or Madison the counter- 
parts, the original of Washington's letter, and a copy of the 
reply ; for it is only from one or both of these sources that 
Mr. Sparks can have obtained them for his paper on the 
Farewell Address. Washington preserved the original of 
Madison's draught, the original of his own draught, the 
original of Hamilton's correction of it, the originals of all 
Hamilton's letters, and we presume, — for this was his 
habit, — copies of the letters he had written to Hamilton, 
touching the same matter. He preserved, we have no 
doubt, the revision of Hamilton, as he preserved all the 
other papers ; for it is morally certain that from Washing- 



CONCERNING THE ADDRESS, UNTIL HIS DEATH. 163 

ton's cabinet it must have come, directly or indirectly, to the 
certain person in Mr. Jay's letter, if there was accuracy in 
Judge Peters's statement. Washington was even anxious 
to keep copies of all these papers ; for he urged upon Ham- 
ilton the safe-keeping and return of his own draught, because 
he had no copy, except of the " quoted part," which was 
Madison's ; and of this he had the original. There is no 
difficulty, moreover, in suggesting why he was so tenacious 
of that draught, and so desirous of its being returned to 
him, — namely, that by it would be at all times shown what 
was his own, and what the contribution of another, to the 
Farewell Address. Washington preserved all these papers 
until his death, with his usual and very remarkable care; 
and he left them at his death to the inspection of affection 
or curiosity, which he knew to be unlimited in regard to all 
that concerned him. Nay, further : this care of papers, in 
relation to a subject vastly more interesting to affection and 
curiosity than any paper he ever published, must be, to 
every one who reflects upon it, a most persuasive proof of a 
foregone determination or conclusion on the part of Wash- 
ington, that the full history of the Farewell Address, from 
the beginning to the end, including all the parties, and all 
their specific contributions, should be known at his death. 
One of his noble motives for this, — not looking to himself 
at all, but to the friend whose public virtues he knew, as 
well as his high-toned fidelity, — may not improbably have 
been, to show by them Hamilton's part in the preparation of 
the Address, and his more than accordance with its senti- 
ments; that in this way, by Washington's agency, might be 
put down, the inveterate misrepresentations of a rising party, 
by the heads of which Hamilton was calumniated as hostile to 



164 Washington's motives for preserving them. 

republican government, and to the principles of the Consti- 
tution. Such a motive would have perfectly corresponded 
with Washington's known affection and regard. Let us not 
be over-jealous for such a man, who was as true as steel to 
his principles and friends, and was infinitely above the petty 
jealousies which embitter the small traffickers for the praise 
of the world ! 

Some of his letters to Hamilton are marked private; 
others are not so marked. The very first and fullest of all, 
the letter of the 15th May, is not so marked. It is this by 
which he commits his Valedictory Address to Hamilton, 
mentioning it by name, commenting upon it extensively, 
and requesting him to correct it, with authority to write it 
anew, if he saw fit — stipulating only for the guidance of his 
own sentiments. These were the Man, and these were all 
that he cared to have followed as his own. The letters 
of the 26th June and 10th August are not marked private, 
nor that of the 6th September. Those of the 25th August 
and 1st September are so marked. Can any person, upon 
the inspection of these letters, raise the proposition, that 
those marked private were to be regarded as specially 
private or confidential, and the others not so I or that there 
was anything in that mark where it was used, except a par- 
tial observance of routine, sometimes followed by accident, 
and sometimes omitted in the like way, to distinguish a 
public letter, or a familiar one, from a letter that was to be 
treated with some reserve \ There is nothing in this mark, 
or in any part of the case, that shows a purpose in Wash- 
ington to have the intervention of Hamilton treated with 
special secrecy. There was an intimation to the contrary, 
in the plainness with which he referred to Madison's 



SAME SUBJECT. 165 

aid, and to his purpose of bringing home to one or two per- 
sons, the consciousness that the aid had been given upon a 
former occasion, and was not given now. If, however, the 
maxk private, or any other mark, had looked to special reserve, 
it must have been used as a restriction for that time only, 
and for its then present purpose, because the careful reten- 
tion of the papers we have referred to, until Washington's 
death, is irrefragable proof to that effect. It is an irrefu- 
table answer to every one, who shall impute to Washington 
the small vanity of wishing to pass for the writer of what 
he did not write, or to Hamilton the correlative wrong of 
preserving what he ought not to have preserved. We bring 
such men down to a level far below them, to the level of the 
common vanities of common men, if we impute such foibles 
to them. Washington knew well, as every great or very 
eminent public man has known, that privacy, in its absolute 
sense, was not for him. He knew that all his papers re- 
lating to public transactions of note, must sooner or later 
become known ; and not from affectionate curiosity only, or 
from the envy that follows public greatness as a shadow, 
even after it has become, in one sense, less than a shade 
itself, but from a grave public and abiding interest in the 
life and transactions of the man upon whom they bore. 
Washington knew all this as well as most men, and possibly 
better; and prepared for it accordingly, not by destroying 
or inventing, as some have done, but by letting everything 
concerning him be seen as it was. The sentiments of that 
Farewell Address were his own — principally by his sugges- 
tion ; the leading or fundamental sentiments, exclusively so. 
This was the gold ; the rest was the minting. 

The whole of this invidious objection, which has been 






166 THE OBJECTION TO PRESERVING HAMILTON'S DRAUGHT 

noticed, is founded on a mistake. It is a mistake, whether 
we regard the subject in the light of general usage or of 
principle, to apply to such a paper as the Farewell Address, 
the rule which may be thought to prevail in cases of confi- 
dential literary assistance, supplied to a friend who is com- 
peting for literary honor as an author. That rule cannot 
have, and, in the practice of the world, has never received, 
an application to the case of a political or military chief, 
communicating his instructions or thoughts to the people, 
or to any branch of the public authorities. Such communi- 
cations are essentially a public act, and not a personal one, 
except that, in such a leave-taking as Washington's, we 
may suppose that he searched the depths of his heart for the 
thoughts which he meant to utter to the people ; and very 
many of the great thoughts of that paper are from his own 
heart. In the first intention, the paper would have been 
more a personal one, than it afterwards became, to Wash- 
ington's entire satisfaction, through a just consideration of 
his great public relation to the whole country and people. 
The official character in such a case, and the direction to the 
whole people, could not be thrown off, without impairing the 
weight and influence of the writing, and almost its perti- 
nency. The difference between a speech or message to the 
two Houses of Congress, and such an address to the people, 
may be a constitutional one in this sense, that there is an 
affirmative provision in the Constitution which includes the 
one expressly, without expressing the other ; but, in the 
sense of public concern, and of executive supervision, there 
is no difference between them. Washington did not regard 
the paper as a personal one only. He read it to his Cabi- 



NOT APPLICABLE TO SUCH A PUBLIC PAPER. 167 

net,* and he ordered it to be recorded in the Department of 
State. He was not competing for favor as an author, but 
recommending principles of government, and rules of political 
action, within the range and scope of the Executive office ; 
and by whom he was assisted in giving form or expression 
to his thoughts, or in suggesting thoughts for his considera- 
tion, was a matter that no more touched his self-love, or his 
sense of self-respect, than the like service did in regard to a 
speech or message to Congress. No one, who has formed a 
just estimate of that great man, can imagine that he regarded 
his personal dignity, or his personal value and efficiency, 
and, least of all, his true claims to respect and reverence, as 
reduced or compromised, in the least degree, by his asking 
the aid of a friend, who had been his trusted minister, to 
arrange his thoughts, or to improve their expression, upon 
any public subject on which he felt it his duty to speak. He 
was so high-spirited and sensitive, as well as sincere, that 
the glimpse of such a thought would have turned him aside, 
as certainly, perhaps, as any man that ever lived. The 
resort to such assistance was all the more likely to be made, 
and was all the more frequently made, because no one was 
more justly entitled to feel conscious, that his powers of 
thought and expression were such as to place him on a per- 
fect level with his office and duties ; though, on occasions 
when he might encounter criticism from enemies or adversa- 
ries — and he had them both — he may have thought that his 
active life had not permitted him to become so sure of the 
various colors and shades of language, or so intimate with 



* I state this fact upon the authority of a letter from Colonel Pickering, then Secre- 
tary of State, which is in the possession of John C Hamilton, Esq. 



168 REMARKS UPON THE RESPECTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS 

the best forms of composition, as to enable him to select 
with facility, in the face of snch critics, the plan and words 
which would give the most certain and effective expression 
to his thoughts, and the best protection against their per- 
versions. 

It is a small question to raise, after the death of two great 
public men, neither of whom, in his lifetime, suffered the 
breath of dishonor to condense upon his garments ; and each 
of whom, in his claims to a deathless reputation, could have 
referred to a thousand proofs that are stronger than the 
Farewell Address, or the original draught of it. But, having 
been raised, through accident or design, through levity or 
malevolence, my admiration of each has made me unwilling 
to withhold the humble labor of putting it in its proper light 
in regard to both. 

Having now concluded this Inquiry, after placing in the 
body of it, or pointing out in the documents it refers to, 
ample and authentic materials from which every reader may 
form an opinion for himself, there is little occasion for ex- 
pressing my own, upon the whole matter. I must avoid, 
however, the appearance of affectation, by suppressing it 
altogether at the conclusion, after having, no doubt, inti- 
mated portions of it incidentally, and sometimes perhaps 
unintentionally, in the course of the essay. 

I have not the least intention, however, of either institu- 
ting, or leading to, a comparison of the respective values of 
the several contributions to the Farewell Address. If that 
question shall be raised, of which I should think there is 
little probability, at least among men who have sufficient 
sentiment to regard that Address as the testament of Wash- 



OF WASHINGTON AND HAMILTON. 169 

ington, and Hamilton as the indicter of his Will, the com- 
parison must have different results, as it shall be made upon 
either political, or moral, or literary grounds ; for values of 
these descriptions are not comparable altogether in their na- 
ture, one or more of them passing by weight, adjusted upon 
exact principles, and one at least by a variable and rather 
arbitrary scale of taste or convention. Even the more pon- 
derable parts are by no means on one side only. My dispo- 
sition is to describe, and not to compare. 

Washington was undoubtedly the original designer of the 
Farewell Address ; and not merely by general or indefinite 
intimation, but by the suggestion of perfectly definite sub- 
jects, of an end or object, and of a general outline, the same 
which the paper now exhibits. His outline did not appear 
so distinctly in his own plan, because the subjects were not 
so arranged in it as to show that they were all comprehended 
within a regular and proportional figure ; but when they 
came to be so arranged in the present Address, the scope of 
the whole design is seen to be contained within the limits 
he intended, and to fill them. The subjects were traced by 
him with adequate precision, though without due connection, 
with little expansion, and with little declared bearing of 
the parts upon each other, or towards a common centre; 
but they may now be followed with ease in their proper 
relations and bearing in the finished paper, such only ex- 
cepted as he gave his final consent and approbation to 
exclude. 

In the most common and prevalent sense of the word 
among literary men, this may not, perhaps, be called author- 
ship ; but in the primary etymological sense, — the quality of 
imparting growth or increase, — there can be no doubt that 



170 THE SAME SUBJECT 

it is so. By derivation from himself, the Farewell Address 
speaks the very mind of Washington. The fundamental 
thoughts and principles were his ; but he was not the com- 
poser or writer of the paper, 

Hamilton was, in the prevalent literary sense, the com- 
poser and writer of the paper. The occasional adoption of 
Washington's language does not materially take from the 
justice of this attribution. The new plan, the different 
form, proceeded from Hamilton. He was the author of it. 
He put together the thoughts of Washington in a new 
order, and with a new bearing ; and while, as often as he 
could, he used the words of Washington, his own language 
was the general vehicle, both of his own thoughts, and for 
the expansion and combination of Washington's thoughts. 
Hamilton developed the thoughts of Washington, and cor- 
roborated them — included several cognate subjects, and 
added many effective thoughts from his own mind, and 
united all into one chain by the links of his masculine logic. 

The main trunk was Washington's ; the branches were 
stimulated by Hamilton; and the foliage, which was not 
exuberant, was altogether his ; and he, more than Wash- 
ington, pruned and nipped off, with severe discrimination, 
whatever was excessive, — that the tree might bear the fruits 
which Washington desired, and become his full and fit 
representative. 

This is the impression which the proofs have made upon 
me ; and I am not conscious of the least bias or partiality, in 
receiving it from them. 

It is quite impossible, I think, to divide the work by any- 
thing like a sharp line between Washington and Hamilton ; 
but there is less difficulty in representing the character of 



CONTINUED AND CLOSED. 171 

their contributions, by language in some degree figurative, 
such as, in one instance, I have used already. 

We have explicit authority for regarding the whole Man 
as compounded of body, soul, and spirit. The Farewell 
Address, in a lower and figurative sense, is likewise so com- 
pounded. If these were divisible and distributable, we 
might, though not with full and exact propriety, allot the 
soul to Washington, and the spirit to Hamilton. The 
elementary body is Washington's, also; but Hamilton has 
developed and fashioned it, and he has symmetrically formed 
and arranged the members, to give combined and appro- 
priate action to the whole. This would point to an allot- 
ment of the soul and the elementary body to Washington, 
and of the arranging, developing, and informing spirit to 
Hamilton, — the same characteristic which is found in the 
great works he devised for the country, and are still the 
chart by which his department of the government is ruled. 

The Farewell Address itself, while hi one respect — the 
question of its authorship — it has had the fate of the Eikon 
Basilike, in another it has been more fortunate; for no 
Iconodastes has appeared, or ever can appear, to break or 
mar the image and superscription of Washington, which it 
bears, or to sully the principles of moral and political action 
in the government of a Nation, which are reflected from it 
with his entire approval, and were, in fundamental points, 
dictated by himself. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 



WASHINGTON'S ORIGINAL OR PREPARATORY DRAUGHT OF A 
FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

[A copy of this document accompanied Washington's letter of 
15th May, 1796, to A. Hamilton. The asterisks indicate the altera- 
tions by Washington, referred to in that letter.] 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — 

The quotation in this Address was composed, and in- 
tended to have been published, in the year 1792, in time 
to have announced to the Electors of the President and Vice- 
President of the United States, the determination of the former, 
previous to the said election to that office could have been made; but 
the solicitude of my confidential friends *** *** ********* ** 

***** ******* ** ************* added to the peculiar situation 
of our foreign affairs at that epoch, induced me to suspend the pro- 
mulgation, lest, among other reasons, my retirement might be 
ascribed to political cowardice. In place thereof, I resolved, if it 



t 



■*# a-****** 



174 APPENDIX. 

should be the pleasure of my fellow-citizens to honor me again with 
their suffrages, to devote such services as I could render, a year or 
two longer, trusting that within that period all impediments to an 
honorable retreat would be removed. 

In this hope, as fondly entertained as it was conceived, I entered 
upon the execution of the duties of my second administration. 
But if the causes which produced this postponement had any 
weight in them at that period, it will readily be acknowledged that 
there has been no diminution in them since, until very lately, and 
it will serve to account for the delay which has taken place in com- 
municating the sentiments which were then committed to writing, 
and are now found in the following words : — 

[madison's " ^ ne P er i°d which will close the appointment with 

draught.] which my fellow-citizens have honored me, being not very 
distant, and the time actually arrived at which their thoughts must 
be designating the citizen who is to administer the executive govern- 
ment of the United States during the ensuing term, it may be 
requisite to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I 
should apprise such of my fellow-citizens as may retain their par- 
tiality towards me, that I am not to be numbered among those out 
of whom a choice is to be made. 

" I beg them to be assured that the resolution, which dictates this 
intimation, has not been taken without the strictest regard to the 
relation which, as a dutiful citizen, I bear to my country ; and that, 
in withdrawing that tender of my service, which silence in my situa- 
tion might imply, I am not influenced by the smallest deficiency of 
zeal for its future interests, or of grateful respect for its past kind- 
ness ; but by the fullest persuasion that such a step is compatible 
with both. 

" The impressions, under which I entered on the present arduous 
trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In discharge of this 
trust, I can only say, that I contributed towards the organization 
and administration of the government the best exertions of which a 



APPENDIX. 175 

very fallible judgment was capable. For any errors, which may 
have flowed from this source, I feel all the regret which an anxiety 
for the public good can excite ; not without the double consolation, 
however, arising from a consciousness of their being involuntary, 
and an experience of the candor which will interpret them. 

" If there were any circumstances which could give value to my 
inferior qualifications for the trust, these circumstances must have 
been temporary. In this light was the undertaking viewed when I 
ventured upon it. Being, moreover, still further advanced in the 
decline of life, I am every day more sensible, that the increasing 
weight of years renders the private walks of it, in the shade of re- 
tirement, as necessary as they will be acceptable to me. 

" May I be allowed to add, that it will be among the highest as 
well as purest enjoyments that can sweeten the remnant of my days, 
to partake in a private station, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, of 
that benign influence of good laws under a free government, which 
has been the ultimate object of all our wishes, and in which I 
confide as the happy reward of our cares and labors ? May I be 
allowed further to add, as a consideration far more important, that 
an early example of rotation in an office of so high and delicate a 
nature may equally accord with the republican spirit of our Consti- 
tution, and the ideas of liberty and safety entertained by the people. 
"In contemplating the moment at which the curtain is to drop 
forever on the public scenes of my life, my sensations anticipate, 
and do not permit me to suspend, the deep acknowledgments re- 
quired by that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country 
for the many honors it has conferred upon me, for the distinguished 
confidence it has reposed in me, and for the opportunities I have 
thus enjoyed of testifying my inviolable attachment by the most 
steadfast services, which my faculties could render. 

" All the returns I have now to make will be in those vows, which 
I shall carry with me to my retirement and to my grave, that 
Heaven may continue to favor the people of the United States with 
the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that their union and brotherly 



176 APPENDIX. 

affection may be perpetual ; that the free Constitution, which is the 
work of their own hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its 
administration, in every department, may be stamped with wisdom 
and with virtue ; and that this character may be insured to it by 
that watchfulness over public servants, and public measures, which 
on one hand will be necessary to prevent or correct a degeneracy, 
and that forbearance, on the other, from unfounded or indiscriminate 
jealousies, which would deprive the public of the best services, by 
depriving a conscious integrity of one of the noblest incitements to 
perform them ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of America, 
under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful 
a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire 
them the glorious satisfaction of recommending it to the affection, 
the praise, and the adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger 
to it. 

" And may we not dwell with well-grounded hopes on this flatter- 
ing prospect, when we reflect on the many ties by which the people 
of America are bound together, and the many proofs they have 
given of an enlightened judgment and a magnanimous patriotism? 

"We may all be considered as the children of one common coun- 
try. We have all been embarked in one common cause. We have 
all had our share in common sufferings and common successes. The 
portion of the earth, allotted for the theatre of our fortunes, fulfils 
our most sanguine desires. All its essential interests are the same ; 
while the diversities arising from climate, from soil, and from other 
local and lesser peculiarities, will naturally form a mutual relation 
of the parts, that may give to the whole a more entire independence, 
than has perhaps fallen to the lot of any other nation. 

" To confirm these motives to an affectionate and permanent 
Union, and to secure the great objects of it, we have established a 
common government, which, being free in its principles, being 
founded in our own choice, being intended as the guardian of our 
common rights, and the patron of our common interests, and wisely 
containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, as ex- 






APPENDIX. . 177 

perience may point out its errors, seems to promise everything that 
can be expected from such an institution ; and, if supported by wise 
counsels, by virtuous conduct, and by mutual and friendly allow- 
ances, must approach as near to perfection as any human work can 
aspire, and nearer than any which the annals of mankind have 
recorded. 

"With these wishes and hopes, I shall make my exit from civil 
life ; and I have taken the same liberty of expressing them, which 
I formerly used in offering the sentiments which were suggested by 
my exit from military life. 

"If, in either instance, I have presumed more than I ought, on 
the indulgence of my fellow-citizens, they will be too generous to 
ascribe it to any other cause, than the extreme solicitude which I 
am bound to feel, and which I can never cease to feel, for their 
liberty, their prosperity, and their happiness." 

" Had the situation of our public affairs continued 

("HINTS, OE HEADS"] r 

L op topics. J to wear the same aspect they assumed at the time the 
foregoing address was drawn, I should not have taken the liberty of 
troubling you, my fellow-citizens, with any new sentiment, or with 
a repetition more in detail of those, which are therein contained ; 
but considerable changes having taken place, both at home and 
abroad, I shall ask your indulgence while I express, with more 
lively sensibility, the following most ardent wishes of my heart. 

" That party disputes among all the friends and lovers of their 
country may subside, or, as the wisdom of Providence has ordained 
that men on the same subjects shall not always think alike, that 
charity and benevolence, when they happen to differ, may so far 
shed their benign influence, as to banish those invectives which pro- 
ceed from illiberal prejudices and jealousy. 

" That, as the All-wise Dispenser of human blessings has favored 
no nation of the earth with more abundant and substantial means 
of happiness than United America, we may not be so ungrateful to 
our Creator, so wanting to ourselves, and so regardless of posterity, 

12 



i 



178 APPENDIX. 

as to dash the cup of beneficence, which is thus bountifully offered 
to our acceptance. 

" That we may fulfil with the greatest exactitude all our engage- 
ments, foreign and domestic, to the utmost of our abilities, whenso- 
ever and in whatsoever manner they are pledged ; for in public, as 
in private life, I am persuaded that honesty will forever be found to 
be the best policy. 
- " That we may avoid connecting ourselves with the politics of 
any nation, farther than shall be found necessary to regulate our 
own trade, in order that commerce may be placed upon a stable 
footing, our merchants know their rights, and the government the 
ground on which those rights are to be supported. 

" That every citizen would take pride in the name of an Ameri- 
can, and act as if he felt the importance of the character, by con- 
sidering, that we, ourselves are now a distinct nation, the dignity of 
which will be absorbed, if not annihilated, if we enlist ourselves, 
farther than our obligations may require, under the banners of any 
other nation whatsoever. And, moreover, that we should guard 
against the intrigues of any and every foreign nation, who shall 
endeavor to intermingle, however covertly and indirectly, in the in- 
ternal concerns of our country, or who shall attempt to prescribe 
rules for our policy with any other power, if there be no infraction 
of our engagements with themselves, as one of the greatest evils 
that can befall us as a people ; for, whatever may be their profes- 
sions, be assured, fellow-citizens, and the event will, as it always 
has, invariably prove, that nations as well as individuals act for 
their own benefit, and not for the benefit of others, unless both 
interests happen to be assimilated ; and when that is the case there 
requires no contract to bind them together; that all their inter- 
ferences are calculated to promote the former ; and, in proportion 
as they succeed, will render us less independent. In a word, nothing 
is more certain, than that, if we receive favors we must grant favors ; 
and it is not easy to decide beforehand under such circumstances as 
vwe are, on which side the balance will ultimately preponderate ; but 



APPENDIX. 179 

easy indeed is it to foresee, that it may involve us in disputes, and 
finally in war, to fulfil political alliances. Whereas, if there be no 
engagements on our part, we shall be unembarrassed, and at liberty 
at all times to act from circumstances, and the dictates of justice, 
sound policy, and our essential interests. 

" That we may be always prepared for war, but never unsheath 
the sword except in self-defence, so long as justice, and our essen- 
tial rights and national respectability, can be preserved without it ; 
for without the gift of prophecy it may safely be pronounced, that, 
if this country can remain in peace twenty years longer (and I 
devoutly pray, that it may do so to the end of time), such, in all 
probability, will be its population, riches, and resources, when com- 
bined with its peculiarly happy and remote situation from the other 
quarters of the globe, as to bid defiance, in a just cause, to any 
earthly power whatsoever. 

" That, whensoever and so long as we profess to be neutral, our 
public conduct, whatever our private affections may be, may accord 
therewith ; without suffering partialities on one hand, or prejudices 
on the other, to control our actions. A contrary practice is not 
only incompatible with our declarations, but is pregnant with mis- 
chief, embarrassing to the administration, tending to divide us into 
parties, and ultimately productive of all those evils and horrors, 
which proceed from faction. 

" That our Union may be as lasting as time ; for, while we are 
encircled in one band, we shall possess the strength of a giant, and 
there will be none who can make us afraid. Divide, and we shall 
become weak, a prey to foreign intrigues and internal discord, and 
shall be as miserable and contemptible, as we are now enviable and 
happy. 

"That the several departments of government may be preserved 
in their utmost constitutional purity, without any attempt of one to 
encroach on the rights or privileges of another ; that the General 
and State governments may move in their proper orbits ; and that 
the authorities of our own Constitution may be respected by our- 



180 APPENDIX. 

selves, as the most certain means of having them respected by 
foreigners. 

" In expressing these sentiments it will readily be perceived, that 
I can have no other view now, whatever malevolence might have 
ascribed to it before, than such as results from a perfect conviction 
of the utility of the measure. If public servants, in the exercise 
of their official duties, are found incompetent, or pursuing wrong 
courses, discontinue them. If they are guilty of malpractices in 
office, let them be more exemplarily punished. In both cases, the 
Constitution and laws have made provision ; but do not withdraw 
your confidence from them, the best incentive to a faithful discharge 
of their duty, without just cause ; nor infer, because measures of a 
complicated nature, which time, opportunity, and close investigation 
alone can penetrate, — for these reasons are not easily comprehended 
by those who do not possess the means, — that it necessarily follows 
they must be wrong. This would not only be doing injustice to your 
trustees, but be counteracting your own essential interests, render- 
ing those trustees, if not contemptible in the eyes of the world, 
little better at least, than ciphers in the administration of the 
government, and the Constitution of your own choosing would re- 
proach you for such conduct." 

As this Address, fellow-citizens, will be the last I shall 
ever make you, and as some of the gazettes of the United 
States have teemed with all the invective that disappointment, igno- 
rance of facts, and malicious falsehoods could invent, to misrepre- 
sent my politics and affections ; to wound my reputation and feel- 
ings ; and to weaken if not entirely destroy the confidence you 
had been pleased to repose in me ; it might be expected at the 
parting scene of my public life, that I should take some notice of 
such virulent abuse. But, as heretofore, I shall pass them over in 
utter silence ; never having myself, nor by any other with my par- 
ticipation or knowledge, written, or published a scrap in answer to 
any of them. My politics have been unconcealed, plain and direct. 



APPENDIX. 181 

They will be found (so far as they relate to the belligerent powers) 
in the proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793 ; which, having met 
your approbation, and the confirmation of Congress, I have uni- 
formly and steadily adhered to, uninfluenced by and regardless of 
the complaints and attempts of any of those powers or their parti- 
sans to change them. 

The acts of my administration are on record. By these, which 
will not change with circumstances nor admit of different interpre- 
tations, I expect to be judged. If they will not acquit me, in your 
estimation, it will be a source of regret ; but I shall hope notwith- 
standing, as I did not seek the office with which you have honored 
me, that charity may throw her mantle over my want of abilities to 
do better — that the gray hairs of a man who has, excepting the in- 
terval between the close of the Revolutionary War and the organiza- 
tion of the new government — either in a civil, or military character, 
spent five and forty years — All the prime of Ms life — in serving 
his country, be suffered to pass quietly to the grave — and that his 
errors, however numerous, if they are not criminal, may be con- 
signed to the tomb of oblivion, as he himself soon will be to the 
mansions of retirement. 

To err is the lot of humanity, and never for a moment, have I 
ever had the presumption to suppose that I had not a full proportion 
of it. Infallibility not being the attribute of man, we ought to be 
cautious in censuring the opinions and conduct of one another. To 
avoid intentional error in my public conduct has been my constant 
endeavor ; and I set malice at defiance to charge me justly, with the 
commission of a wilful one ; or, with the neglect of any public duty, 
which in my opinion ought to have been performed, since I have 
been in the administration of the government, — an administration 
which I do not hesitate to pronounce — the infancy of the government, 
and all other circumstances considered — that has been as difficult, 
delicate, and trying as may occur again in any future period of our 
history ; through the whole of which I have to the best of my 
judgment, and with the best information and advice I could obtain, 



182 



APPENDIX. 



consulted the true and permanent interest of my country without 
regard to local considerations — to individuals — to parties — or to 
nations. 

To conclude, and I feel proud in having it in my power to do so 
with truth, that it was not from ambitious views ; it was not from 
ignorance of the hazard to which I knew I was exposing my repu- 
tation ; it was not from an expectation of pecuniary compensation, 
that I have yielded to the calls of my country ; and that, if my 
country has derived no benefit from my services, my fortune, in a 
pecuniary point of view, has received no augmentation from my 
country. But in delivering this last sentiment, let me be unequivo- 
cally understood as not intending to express any discontent on my 
part, or to imply any reproach on my country on that account. 
[The first would be untrue — the other ungrateful. And no occasion 
more fit than the present may ever occur perhaps to declare, as I 
now do declare, that nothing but the principle upon which I set out, 
and from which I have in no instance departed, not to receive more 
from the public than my expenses, has restrained the bounty of 
several legislatures at the close of the war with Great Britain 
from adding considerably to my pecuniary resources.]* I retire 
from the chair of government no otherwise benefitted in this par- 
ticular than what you have all experienced from the increased value 
of property, flowing from the peace and prosperity with which our 
country has been blessed amidst tumults which have harassed and 
involved other countries in all the horrors of war. I leave you with 
undefiled hands, an uncorrupted heart, and with ardent vows to 
Heaven for the welfare and happiness of that country in which I 
and my forefathers, to the third or fourth progenitor, drew our first 
breath. 

G<k Washington. 



* In the margin of this passage, which is here bracketed, Washington wrote : " This 
may or not be omitted." The brackets are not in the copy of Washington's draught. 






APPENDIX. 183 



No. II. 
FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

ABSTRACT OF POINTS TO FORM AN ADDRESS * 
Hamilton's Works, Vol. VII, p. 570. 

1796. 

I. The period of a new election approaching, it is his duty to an- 
nounce his intention to decline. 

II. He had hoped that long ere this it would have been in his 
power, and particularly had nearly come to a final resolution in the 
year 1792 to do it, but the peculiar situation of affairs, and advice 
of confidential friends, dissuaded. 

III. In acquiescing in a further election he still hoped a year or 
two longer would have enabled him to withdraw, but a continuance 
of causes has delayed till now, when the position of our country, 
abroad and at home, justifies him in pursuing his inclination. 

IV. In doing it he has not been unmindful of his relations as a 
dutiful citizen to his country, nor is now influenced by the smallest 
diminution of zeal for its interest or gratitude for its past kindness, 
but by a belief that the step is compatible with both. 

V. The impressions under which he first accepted were explained 
on the proper occasion. 

VI. In the execution of it he has contributed the best exertions 
of a very fallible judgment — anticipated his insufficiency — expe- 
rienced his disqualifications for the difficult trust, and every day a 
stronger sentiment from that cause to yield the place — advance into 
the decline of life — every day more sensible of weight of years, of 
the necessity of repose, of the duty to seek retirement, &c. Add, 



* This indorsement, together with the whole of this paper, is copied from a draught 
in Hamilton's hand. — Ed. 



184 APPENDIX.' 

VII. It will be among the purest enjoyments which can sweeten 
the remnant of his days, to partake in a private station, in the 
midst of his fellow-citizens, the laws of a free government, the ulti- 
mate object of his cares and wishes. 

VIII. As to rotation. 

IX. In contemplating the moment of retreat, cannot forbear to 
express his deep acknowledgments and debt of gratitude for the 
many honors conferred on him — the steady confidence which, even 
amidst discouraging scenes and efforts to poison its source, has ad- 
hered to support him, and enabled him to be useful — marking, if 
well placed, the virtue and wisdom of his countrymen. All the 
return he can now make must be in the vows he will carry with him 
to his retirement : 1st, for a continuance of the Divine beneficence 
to his country ; 2d, for the perpetuity of their union and brotherly 
affection — for a good administration insured by a happy union of 
watchfulness and confidence ; 3d, that happiness of people under 
auspices of liberty may be complete ; 4th, that by a prudent use of 
the blessing they may recommend to the affection, the praise, and 
the adoption, of every nation yet a stranger to it. 

X. Perhaps here he ought to end. But an unconquerable solici- 
tude for the happiness of his country will not permit him to leave 
the scene without availing himself of whatever confidence may 
remain in him, to strengthen some sentiments which he believes to 
be essential to their happiness, and to recommend some rules of con- 
duct, the importance of which his own experience has more than 
ever impressed upon him. 

XI. To consider the Union as the rock of their salvation, pre- 
senting summarily these ideas : 

1. The strength and greater security from external danger. 

2. Internal peace, and avoiding the necessity of establishments 

Safety, peace, dangerous to liberty, 

and liberty and 

commerce. 3. Avoids the effects of foreign intrigue. 

4. Breaks the force of faction by rendering combinations more 
difficult. 



APPENDIX. 185 

Fitness of the parts for each other by their very discrimina- 
tions : 

1. The North, by its capacity for maritime strength and manu- 
facture. 

2. The agricultural South furnishing materials and requiring 
those protections. 

The Atlantic board to the western country by the strong interest 
of peace, and 

The Western, by the necessity of Atlantic maritime protection. 

Cannot be secure of their great outlet otherwise — cannot trust a 
foreign connection. 

Solid interests invite to union. Speculation of difficulty of 
government ought not to be indulged, nor momentary jealousies — 
lead to impatience. 

Faction and individual ambition are the only advisers of disunion. 

Let confidence be cherished. Let the recent experience of the 
West be a lesson against impatience and distrust. 

XII. Cherish the actual government. It is the government of 
our own choice, free in its principles, the guardian of our common 
rights, the patron of our common interests, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment. 

But let that provision be cautiously used — not abused ; changing 
only in any material points as experience shall direct ; neither in- 
dulging speculations of too much or too little force in the system ; 
and remembering always the extent of our country. 

Time and habit of great consequence to every government, of 
whatever structure. 

Discourage the spirit of faction, the bane of free government ; 
and particularly avoid founding it on geographical discriminations. 
Discountenance slander of public men. Let the departments of 
government avoid interfering and mutual encroachment. 

XIII. Morals, religion, industry, commerce, economy. 
Cherish public credit — source of strength and security. 
Adherence to systematic views. 



186 APPENDIX. 

XIV. Cherish good faith, justice, and peace, with other nations : 

1. Because religion and morality dictate it. 

2. Because policy dictates it. 

If these could exist, a nation invariably honest and faithful, the 
benefits would be immense. 

But avoid national antipathies or national attachments. 

Display the evils ; fertile source of wars — instrument of ambitious 
rulers. 

XV. Republics peculiarly exposed to foreign intrigue, those sen- 
timents lay them open to it. 

XVI. The great rule of our foreign politics ought to be to have 
as little political connection as possible with foreign nations. 

Cultivating commerce with all by gentle and 

Establishing temporary and , i-m • it ■in- 

convenient rules that com- natural means, diffusing and diversifying it, 

"*l- ™£212 hut forcing nothing-^d cherish the sentiment 
their commerce; how to s.. P - f independence, taking pride in the appella- 

port them, not seeking favors. x ' ° * rr 

tion of American. 

XVII. Our separation from Europe renders standing alliances 
inexpedient — subjecting our peace and interest to the primary and 
complicated relations of European interests. 

Keeping constantly in view to place ourselves upon a respect- 
able defensive, and if forced into controversy, trusting to con- 
nections of the occasion. 

XVIII. Our attitude imposing and rendering this policy safe. 
But this must be with the exception of existing engagements, to 

be preserved but not extended. 

XIX. It is not expected that these admonitions can control the 
course of the human passions, but if they only moderate them in 
some instances, and now and then excite the reflections of virtuous 
men heated by party spirit, my endeavor is rewarded. 

XX. How far, in the administration of my present office my con- 
duct has conformed to these principles, the public records must 
witness. My conscience assures me that I believed myself to be 
guided by them. 



APPENDIX. 187 

XXI. Particularly in relation to the present war, the proclama- 
tion of the 22d of April, 1793, is the key to my plan. 

Touch sentiments Approved by your voice and that of your represent- 

vrith regard to . . 

conduct of bei- atives in Congress, the spirit of that measure has con- 
A^^wish P( "that tinually guided me, uninfluenced by, and regardless of, 
France may es- ^ G complaints and attempts of any of the powers at 

tablish good gov- * ir •/ I 

emment. war or their partisans to change them. 

I thought our country had a right under all the cir- 
Time everything, cumstances to take this ground, and I was resolved as 
far as depended on me to maintain it firmly. 

XXII. However, in reviewing the course of my administration, 
I may be unconscious of intentional errors, I am too sensible of my 
own deficiencies not to believe that I may have fallen into many. 
I deprecate the evils to which they may tend, and pray Heaven to 
avert or mitigate and abridge them. I carry with me, nevertheless, 
the hope that my motives will continue to be viewed with indulgence, 
that after forty-five years of my life devoted to public service, with 
a good zeal and upright views, the faults of deficient abilities will 
be consigned to oblivion, and myself must soon be to the mansions 
of rest. 

XXIII. Neither interest nor ambition has been my impelling 
motive. I never abused the power confided to me — I have not bet- 
tered my fortune, retiring with it, no otherwise improved than by 
the influence on property of the common blessings of my country : — 
I retire with undefiled hands and an uncorrupted heart, and with 
ardent vows for the . welfare of that country, which has been the 
native soil of myself and my ancestors for four generations. 



188 APPENDIX. 

No. III. 

HAMILTON'S ORIGINAL DRAUGHT OF AN ADDRESS* 
Hamilton's Works, Vol. VII, p. 575. 

[Memorandum. — The clauses in this reprint which are inclosed by 
brackets, with an exception of four words in the 26th paragraph, 
that are bracketed in Hamilton's works, show the origin of the 
cancelled passages in Washington's autograph copy of the Farewell 
Address. The original of this draught is indorsed by Hamilton, 
"Copy of the original draught considerably amended."] 

August, 1796. 

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the execu- 
tive government of the United States, being not very distant, and 
the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in 
designating the person who is to be clothed with that important 
trust for another term, it appears to me proper, and especially as it 
may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that 
I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline 
being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice 
is to be made. 

I beg you, nevertheless, f to be assured that the resolution which 
I announce, has not been taken without a strict regard to all the 
considerations attached to} the relation which, as a dutiful citizen, 
I bear§ to my|| country, and that in withdrawing the tender of my 
service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced 
by no diminution of zeal for its future interest, nor by any deficiency 



* This is a copy of the original draught in Hamilton's autograph. The notes 
embrace the final alterations in this draught, but there are many previous erasures 
which can only be given in a fac-simile. — Ed. 

j* at the same time. J connected with — inseparable from — incident to. 

§ bears. || his. 



APPENDIX. 189 

■ 

of grateful respect for its past kindness, but by a full conviction 
that such a step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and the continuance hitherto in the office to 
which your suffrages have twice called me, has been a uniform sacri- 
fice of private inclination to* the opinion of public duty coinciding 
with what appeared to be your wishes. I had constantly hoped that 
it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with 
motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that 
retirement from which tlwsef motives had reluctantly drawn me. 

The strength of my desire to withdraw previous to the last elec- 
tion, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to 
you, but deliberatej reflection on the very critical and perplexed 
posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice 
of men§ every way entitled to my confidence, obliged|| me to aban- 
don the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your national concerns, external as well 
as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of my inclination incom- 
patible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and^f. that whatever 
partiality any portion of you^may still retain for my services, they, 
under the existing circumstances of our country, will not disapprove 
the** resolutionff I have formed. 

The impressions under which I first accepted the arduous trust of 
Chief Magistrate of the United States, were explained on the proper 
occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I can only say that I have, 
with pure intentions, contributed towards the organization and ad- 
ministration of the government the best exertions of which a very 
fallible judgment was capable ; that conscious at{J the outset of the 
inferiority of my qualifications for the station, experience in my 
own eyes, and perhaps still more in those of others, has not dimi- 



J mature. 
1T whatever. 



* combined with a deference for. 


f they. 


§ persons. 


|| impelled. 


"** my. 


f f to retire. 



190 APPENDIX. 

nished in me the diffidence of myself — and every day the increasing 
weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of 
retirement is as necessary* as it will be welcome to me. Satisfied 
that if any circumstances have given a peculiar value to my services, 
they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that while 
inclination and prudence urge me to recede from the political scene, 
patriotism does not forbid it. [May I also have that of knowing in 
myf retreat, that the involuntary errors which I have probably 
committed, have been the causes of no serious or lasting mischief to 
my country, and thus be spared the anguish of regrets which would 
disturb the repose of my retreat and embitter the remnant of my 
life ! I may then expect to realize, without alloy, the pure enjoy- 
ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, of the benign 
influence of good laws under a free government ; the ultimate object 
of all my wishes, and to which I look as the happy rewardj of our 
mutual labors and dangers.] 

In looking forward to the moment which is to terminate the 
career of my public life, my sensations do not permit me to sus- 
pend the deep acknowledgments required by that debt of gratitude, 
which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has con- 
ferred upon me, still more for the distinguished and steadfast confi- 
dence it has reposed in me, and for the opportunities it has thus 
afforded me§ of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services 
faithful and persevering — however the inadequateness of my faculties 
may have ill-seconded my|| zeal. If benefits have resulted to you, 
my fellow-citizens, from these services, let it always be remembered 
to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that the 
constancy of your support amidst appearances^ dubious, vicissitudes 
of fortune often discouraging, and in situations in which, not unfre- 



* to me. t retirement. J T hope. § I have thence enjoyed. 

|| have rendered their efforts unequal to my — disproportional. 

IT under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable 
to the greatest fluctuations. 



APPENDIX. 191 

quently, want of success has seconded the criticisms of malevolence,* 
■was the essential prop of the efforts and the guarantee of the mea- 
sures by which they were achieved. 

Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to 
my retirement, and to my grave, as a lively incitement to unceasing 
vows (the only returns I can henceforth make) that Heaven may 
continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence, merited by 
national piety and morality — that your union and brotherly affec- 
tion may be perpetual — that the free Constitution, which is the 
work of your own hands, may be sacredly maintained — that its ad- 
ministration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and 
virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, 
under the auspices of liberty may be made complete, by so careful 
a preservation, and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire 
them the glorious satisfaction of recommending it to the affection — 
the praise — and the adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger 
to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop : but a solicitude for your welfare, 
which cannot end but with my life, and the fear that there may 
exist projects unfriendly to it, against which it may be necessary 
you should be guarded, urge me in taking leave of you, to offer to 
your solemn consideration and frequent review, some sentiments, the 
result of mature reflection confirmed by observation and experience, 
which appear to me essential to the permanency of your felicity as 
a people. These will be offered with the more freedom, as you can 
only see in them the disinterested advice of a parting friend, who 
can have no personal motive to tincture or bias his counsel. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every fibre of your 
hearts, no recommendation is necessary to fortify your attachment 
TO IT. Next to this, that unity of government which constitutes 
you one people, claims your vigilant care and guardianship — as a 



sometimes. 



192 APPENDIX. 

main pillar of your real independence, of your peace, safety, free- 
dom, and happiness. 

[This being the point in your political fortress, against which the 
batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly 
and actively, however covertly and insidiously levelled, it is of the 
utmost importance that you should appreciate, in its full force, the 
immense value of your political union to your national and individual 
happiness — that you should cherish towards it an affectionate and 
immovable attachment, and that you should watch for its preserva- 
tion with jealous solicitude.] 

For this, you have every motive of sympathy and interest. 
Children for the most part of a common country, that country 
claims and ought to concentrate your affections. The name of 
American must always gratify and exalt the just pride of patriotism, 
more than any denomination which can be derived from local discri- 
minations. You have with slight shades of difference the same 
religion, manners, habits, and political institutions and principles — 
you have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The 
independence and liberty you enjoy are the work of joint councils, 
efforts, dangers, sufferings, and successes. By your union you 
achieved them, by your union you will most effectually maintain 
them. 

The considerations which address themselves to your sensibility, 
are greatly* strengthened! by those which apply to your interest. 
Here, every portion of our country will find the most urgent and 
commanding motives for guarding and preserving the union of the 
whole. 

The North inj intercourse with the South under the equal laws 
of one government, will, in the productions of the latter, many of 
them peculiar, find vast additional resources of maritime and com- 
mercial enterprise. § The South, in the same intercourse, will share 



* even. f outweighed. J free and unfettered. 

§ and precious materials of their manufacturing industry. 



APPENDIX. 193 

in the benefits of the agency of the North, will find its agriculture 
promoted and its commerce extended by turning into its own chan- 
nels those means of navigation which the North more abundantly 
affords ; and while it contributes to extend the national navigation, 
will participate in the protection of a maritime strength to which 
itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with 
the West,* finds a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings 
from abroad or manufactures at home. The West derives through 
this channel an essential supply of its wants ; and what is far more 
important to it, it must owe the secure and permanent enjoyment of 
the indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, 
influence, and maritime resources of the Atlantic States. f The 
tenure by which it could hold this advantage either from its own 
separate strength, or by an apostate and unnatural connection with 
any foreign nation, must be intrinsically and necessarily precarious, 
[at every moment liable to be disturbed by tliej combinations of 
those primary§ interests which constantly regulate the conduct of 
every portion of Europe,] and where every part finds a particular 
interest in the Union. All the parts of our country will find in 
their Union|| strength, proportional security from external danger, 
less frequent interruption of their peace with foreign nations ; and 
what is far more valuable, an exemption from those broils and wars 
between the parts if disunited, which, then, our rivalships, fomented 
by foreign intrigue or the opposite alliances with foreign nations 
engendered by their mutual jealousies, would inevitably produce.^ 
These considerations speak a conclusive language to every vir- 



* and in the progressive improvement of internal navigation will more and more find. 

"j" directed by an indissoluble community of interests. 

J fluctuating. § European. 

|| greater independence, from the superior abundance and variety of production inci- 
dent to the diversity of soil and climate. All the parts of it must find in the aggregate 
assemblage and reaction of their mutual population — production. 

IT consequent exemption from the necessity of those military establishments upon a 
large scale, which bear in every country so menacing an aspect towards liberty. 

13 



194 APPENDIX. 

tuous and considerate mind. They place the continuance of our 
Union among the first objects of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt 
whether a common government can long embrace so extensive a 
sphere ? Let time and experience decide the question. Speculation 
in such a case ought not to be listened to. And 'tis rational to 
hope that the auxiliary* governments of the subdivisions, with a 
proper organization of the whole, will secure a favorable issue to 
the experiment. ['Tis allowable to believe that the spirit of party, 
the intrigues of foreign nations, the corruption and the ambition of 
individuals, are likely to prove more formidable adversaries to the 
unity of our empire, than any inherent difficulties in the scheme. 
'Tis against these that the guardsf of national opinion, national 
sympathy, national prudence and virtue, are to be erected.] With 
such obvious motives to union, there will be always cause from the 
fact itself to distrust the patriotism of those whoj may endeavor to 
weaken its bands. And by all the love I bear you, my fellow- 
citizens, I conjure§ you, as|| often as it appears, to frown upon the 
attempt. 

[Besides the more serious causes which have been hinted at, as 
endangering our Union, there is another less dangerous, but against 
which it is necessary to be on our guard ; I mean the petulance of 
partyT differences of opinion. It is not uncommon to hear the irri- 
tations which these excite, vent themselves in declarations that the 
different parts of the Union are ill-assorted and cannot remain 
together — in menaces from the inhabitants of one part to those of 
another, that it will be dissolved by this or that measure. Intima- 
tions of the kind are as indiscreet as they are intemperate. Though 
frequently made with levity and without being in earnest, they have 
a tendency to produce the consequence which they indicate. They 
teach the minds of men to consider the Union as precarious, as an 



* agency of. f mounds. 

J in any quarter. § exhort — {written first.) 

|| " often" — instead of " far." IT collisions and disgusts. 



APPENDIX. 195 

object to which they are not to attach their hopes and fortunes, and 
thus weaken the sentiment in its favor. By rousing the resentment 
and alarming the pride of those to whom they are addressed, they 
set ingenuity to work to depreciate the value of the object, and to 
discover motives of indifference to it. This is not wise. Prudence 
demands that we should habituate ourselves in all our words and 
actions to reverence the Union as a sacred and inviolable palladium 
of our happiness, and should discountenance whatever can lead to a 
suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned.] 

['Tis matter of serious concern that parties in this country, for 
some time past, have been too much characterized by geographical 
discriminations — Northern and Southern States, Atlantic and 
Western country. These discriminations,* which are the mere 
artifice of the spirit of party, (always dexterous to avail itself of 
every source of sympathy, of every handle by which the passions 
can be taken hold of, and which has been careful to turn to account 
the circumstance of territorial vicinity,t) have furnished an argu- 
ment against the Union as evidence of a real difference of local 
interests and views, and serve to hazard it, by organizing large 
districts of country under the direction of § different factions, whose 
passions and prejudices, rather than the true interests of the coun- 
try, will be too apt to regulate the use of their influence. If it be 
possible to correct this poison in the affairs of our country, it is 
worthy the best endeavors of moderate and virtuous men to effect it.] 

One of the expedients which the partisans of faction employ to- 
wards strengthening their influence by local discriminations, || is to 
misrepresent the opinions and views of rival districts. The people 
at large cannot be too much on their guard against the jealousies 
which grow out of these misrepresentations. They tend to render 
aliens to each other those who ought to be tied together by fraternal 
affection. The western country have lately had a useful lesson on 



* of party. | sympathy of. J neighborhood. 

§ the leaders of. || within local spheres. 



196 APPENDIX. 

this subject. They have seen in the negotiation by the Executive, 
and in the unanimous ratification of the treaty with Spain by the 
Senate, and in the universal satisfaction at that event in all parts of 
the country, a decisive proof how unfounded have been the suspi- 
cions instilled* in them of a policy in the Atlantic States, and in 
the different departments of the General Government, hostile to 
their interests in relation to the Mississippi. They have seen two 
treaties formed, which secure to them everything that they could 
desire to confirm their prosperity. Will they not henceforth rely 
for the preservation of these advantages on that Union by which 
they were procured ? Will they not reject those counsellors who 
would render them alien to their brethren and connect them with 
aliens ? 

To the duration and efficacy of your Union, a government ex- 
tending over the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however 
strict, between the parts could be an adequate substitute. These 
could not fail to be liable to the infractions and interruptions which 
all alliances in all times have suffered. Sensible of this important 
truth, you have lately established a Constitution of general govern- 
ment, better calculated than the former for an intimate union, and 
more adequate to the duration of your common concerns. This 
government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and 
unawed, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its 
powers, uniting energy with safety, and containing in itself a provi- 
sion for its own amendment, is well entitled to your confidence and 
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acqui- 
escence in its measures,! are duties dictated by the fundamental 
maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the 
right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of 
government. But the Constitution for the time, and until changed 
by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly 
binding upon all. The very idea of the right and power of the 

* propagated among. f ordinary management of affairs to be left to represent 



APPENDIX. 197 

people to establish government, presupposes the duty of every indi- 
vidual to obey the established government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws — all combinations 
and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real 
design to counteract,* control, f or awe the regular J action of the 
constituted authorities, are contrary to this fundamental principle, 
and of the most fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, § 
and to put in the stead of the delegated will of the whole nation the 
will of a party, often a small|| minority of the whole community; 
and according to the alternate triumph of different parties, to make 
the public administration reflect thelf schemes and projects of fac- 
tion rather than the wholesome plans of common councils and deli- 
berations. However combinations or associations of this description 
may occasionally promote popular ends and purposes, they are likely 
to produce, in the course of time and things, the most effectual 
engines by which artful, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be 
enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp the reins of 
government. 

Towards the preservation of your government and the permanency 
of your present happy state, it is not only requisite that you steadily 
discountenance irregular oppositions to its authority, but that you 
should be on your guard against the spirit of innovation upon its 
principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault 
may be, to effect alterations in the forms of the Constitution tend- 
ing to impair the energy of the system, and so to undermine what 
cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you 
may be invited, remember that time and habit are as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments as of any other human insti- 
tutions ; that experience is the surest standard by which the real 
tendency of existing constitutions of government can be tried ; that 



* direct. f influence. 

J deliberation or. § to give it an artificial force. 

|| but artful and enterprising. IT ill-concerted. 



198 APPENDIX. 

changes upon* the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes 
you to perpetual change from the successive and endless variety of 
hypothesis and opinion. And rememher also,f that for the effica- 
cious management of your common interests, in a country so exten- 
sive as ours, a government of as much force and strength as is 
consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. 
Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly 
distributed and arranged, its surest guardian and protector. [In 
my opinion, the real danger in our system is, that the General 
Government, organized as at present, will prove too weak, rather 
than too powerful.] 

I have already observed the danger to be apprehended from 
founding our parties on geographical discriminations. Let me now 
enlarge the view of this point, and caution you in the most solemn 
manner against the baneful effects of party spirit in general. This 
spirit unfortunately is inseparable from human nature, and has its 
root in the strongest passions of the human heart. It exists under 
different shapes in all governments, but| in those of the popular 
form it is always seen in its utmost vigor and rankness, and is their 
worst enemy. [In republics of narrow extent, it is not difficult for 
those who at any time possess the reins of administration, or even 
for partial combinations of men, who from birth, riches, and other 
sources of distinction, have an extraordinary influence, by possess- 
ing or acquiring the direction of the military force, or by sudden 
efforts of partisans and followers to overturn the established order 
of things, and effect a usurpation. But in republics of large extent, 
the one or the other is scarcely possible. The powers and opportu- 
nities of resistance of a numerous and wide-extended nation defy 
the successful efforts of the ordinary military force, or of any col- 
lections§ which wealth and patronage may call to their aid, espe- 
cially if there be no city of overbearing force, resources, and influ- 



* facility in. f always. 

J in different degrees stifled, controlled, or repressed. § assemblages. 



APPENDIX. 199 

ence. In such republics it is perhaps safe to assert, that the conflicts 
of popular faction offer the only avenues to tyranny and usurpation.] 
The domination of one faction over another, stimulated by that 
spirit of revenge which is apt to be gradually engendered, and which 
in different ages and countries has produced the greatest enormities, 
is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more 
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
result, predispose the minds of men to seek repose and security in 
the absolute power of a single man ; and the* leader of a prevailing 
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this 
disposition to the purposes of an ambitious and criminal self-aggran- 
dizement. 

Without looking forward to such an extremity (which, however, 
ought not to be out of sight), the ordinary and continual mischiefs 
of the spirit of party make it the interest and the duty of a wise 
people to discountenance and repress it. 

It serves always to distract the councils and enfeeble the admi- 
nistration of the government. It agitates the community with 
ill-founded jealousies and false alarms. f It opens inlets for foreign 
corruption and influence, which find an easy access [through the 
channels of party passions, and cause the true policy and interest 
of our own country to be made subservient to the policy and interest 
of one and another foreign nation ; sometimes enslaving our own 
government to the will of a foreign government]. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are salutary 
checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to 
invigorate the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is true ; 
and in governments of a monarchical character or bias, patriotism 
may look with some favor on the spirit of party. But in those of 
the popular kind, in those purely elective, it is a spirit not to be 



* some. 

f embittering one part of the community against another, and producing occasionally 
riot and insurrection. 



200 APPENDIX. 

fostered or encouraged. From the natural tendency of such govern- 
ments, it is certain there will always be enough of it for every salu- 
tary purpose, and there being constant danger of excess, the effort 
ought to be, by the force of public opinion, to mitigate and correct 
it. 'Tis a fire which *cannot be quenched, but demandsf a uniform 
vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame — lest it should not 
only warm, but consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking of the 
people should tend to produce caution in their public agents in the 
several departments of government, to retain each within its proper 
sphere, and not to permit one to encroach upon another, — that 
every attempt of the kind, from whatever quarter, should meet with 
the discountenance;]; of the community, and that, in every case in 
which a precedent of encroachment shall have been given, a cor- 
rective be sought in [revocation be effected by] a careful attention 
to the next choice§ of public agents. The spirit of encroachment 
tends to absorb || the powers of the several branches and depart- 
ments into one, and thus to establish, under whatever forms, a 
despotism. A just knowledge of the human heart, of that love 
of power which predominates in it, is alone sufficient to estab- 
lish this truth. Experiments, ancient and modern, some in our 
own country and under our own eyes, serve to confirm it. 
If, in the public opinion, the distribution of the constitutional 
powers be in any instance wrong, or inexpedient — let it be corrected 
by the authority of the people in a legitimate constitutional course. 
Let there be no change by usurpation, for though this may be the 
instrument of good in one instance, it is the ordinary^f instrument 
of the destruction** of free government — and the influence of the 
precedent is always infinitely more pernicious than anything which 
it may achieve can be beneficial. 



* not to. "\ demanding. J reprobation. 

§ election. || and consolidate. IT and natural. 

** death. 



APPENDIX. 201 

In all those dispositions which promote political happiness,* reli- 
gion and morality are essential props. In vain does hef claim the 
praise of patriotism, who labors to subvert or nndermine these great 
pillars of human happiness, these firmest foundations of the duties 
of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious 
man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace 
all their connections with private and public happiness. 

Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for 
reputation, for life, if the sense of moral and religious obligation 
deserts the oaths which are {administered in courts of justice? 
Nor ought we to flatter ourselves that morality can be separated 
from religion. Concede as much as may be asked to the effect of 
refined education in minds of peculiar structure — can we believe — 
can we in prudence suppose that national morality can be maintained 
in exclusion of religious principles ? Does it not require the aid of 
a generally received and divinely authoritative religion ? 

'Tis essentially true that virtue or morality is a main and neces- 
sary spring of popular or republican governments. The rule, indeed, 
extends with more or less force to all free governments. Who that 
is a prudent and sincere friend to them, can look with indifference 
on the ravages which are making in the foundation of the fabric — 
religion ? The uncommon means which of late have been directed 
to this fatal end, seem to make it in a particular manner the duty 
of the retiring chief of a nation to warn his country against tasting 
of the poisonous draught. 

[Cultivate, also, industry and frugality. They are auxiliaries of 
good morals, and great sources of private and national prosperity. 
Is there not room for regret, that our propensity to expense exceeds 
the maturity of our country for expense ? Is there not more luxury 
among us, in various classes, than suits the actual period of our 
national progress ? Whatever may be the apology for luxury in a 
country mature in all the arts which are its ministers and the means 
of national opulence, can it promote the advantage of a young agri- 

* prosperity. f that man. J instruments of investigation. 



202 APPENDIX. 

cultural country, little advanced in manufactures, and not much 
advanced in wealth ?*] 

Cherish public credit as a mean of strength and security. As 
one method of preserving it, use it as little as possible. Avoid oc- 
casions of expense by cultivating peace, — remembering always that 
the preparation against danger, by timely and provident disburse- 
ments, is often a mean of avoiding greater disbursements to repel it. 
Avoid the accumulation of debt by avoiding occasions of expense, 
and by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts 
which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not transferring to 
posterity the burthen which we ought to bear ourselves. Recollect, 
that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue, that to 
have revenue there must be taxes, that it is impossible to devise 
taxes which are not, more or less, inconvenient and unpleasant — that 
they are always a choice of difficulties — that the intrinsic embarrass- 
ment which never fails to attend a selection of objects, ought to be 
a motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government 
in making it — and that a spirit of acquiescence in those measures 
for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies dictate, is, in an 
especial manner, the duty and interest of the citizens of every 
State. 

[Cherish good faith and justice towards, and peace and harmony 
with, all nations. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and 
it cannot be but that true policy equally demands it.] It will be 
worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great 
nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example 
of a people invariably governed byf those exalted views. Who can 
doubt that in a long course of time and events the fruits of such a 
conduct would richly repay any temporary advantages which might 
be lost by a steady adherence to the plan ? Can it be that Provi- 
dence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its 
virtue ? The experiment is recommended by every sentiment which 



* in the infancy of the arts, and certainly not in the manhood of wealth, 
f exalted justice and benevolence. 



APPENDIX. 203 

ennobles human nature. — Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its 
vices ? 

Towards the execution of such a plan, *nothing is more essential 
than that fantipathies against particular nations and passionate at- 
tachments for others, should be avoided — and that instead of them 

we should cultivate just and amicable feelings towards all 

That nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or 

an habitual fondness is, in some degree, a slave It is a 

slave to its animosity, or to its affection — either of which is sufficient 
to lead it astray from its duty and interest. [Antipathy against one 
nation, which never fails to beget a similar sentiment in the other,] 
disposes each more readily to offer injury and insult to the other, to 
lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and un- 
tractable, when accidental or trifling differences arise. Hence fre- 
quent quarrelsj and bitter and obstinate contests. The nation, 
urged by resentment and rage, sometimes impels the government to 
war, contrary to its own calculations of policy. The government 
sometimes participates in this propensity, and does through passion, 
what reason would forbid at other times ; it makes the animosity of 
the nations subservient to hostile projects, which originate in ambi- 
tion and other sinister motives. The peace, often, and sometimes 
the liberty of nations, has been the victim of this cause. 

In like manner, § a passionate attachment of one nation to another 
produces multiplied ills. Sympathy for the favorite nation, pro- 
motingH the illusion of a supposed common interest, in cases where 
it does not exist, ^fthe enmities of the one betrays into a participa- 
tion in its quarrels and wars, without adequate inducements or jus- 
tifications. It leads to the concession of privileges to one nation, 

* it is very material. 

"t that while we entertain proper impressions of particular cases, of friendly or un- 
friendly conduct of different foreign nations towards us, we nevertheless avoid fixed 
and rooted antipathies against any, or passionate attachments for any ; instead of these 
cultivating, as a general rule, just and amicable feelings towards all. 

J broils. § So likewise. || facilitating. IT and communicating to one. 



204 APPENDIX. 

and to the denial of them to others — which is apt doubly to injure 
the nation making the concession, by an unnecessary yielding of 
what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, 
and retaliation in the party from whom an equal privilege is with- 
held. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted* citizens, who devote 
themselves to the views of the favorite foreign power, facility in 
betraying or sacrificing the interests of their own country, even 
with popularity, f gilding with J 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attach- 
ments are peculiarly alarming to the enlightened, independent pa- 
triot. How many opportunities do they afford to intrigue with 
domestic factions, to practise with success the arts of seduction, to 
mislead§ the public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils? 
Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and power- 
ful nation, destines the former to revolve round the latter as its 
satellite. 

Against the mischiefs of foreign influence all the jealousy of a 
free people ought to be constantly|| exerted ;1" but the jealousy of it 
to be useful must be impartial, else it becomes an instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided instead of a defence** against it. 

Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike 
of another, leads to see danger only on one side, and serves to 
veilff the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who resist 
the intrigues of the favorite, become suspected and odious. Its tools 
and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to betray 
their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations, 



* or deluded. f without odium. 

£ the appearance of a virtuous impulse, the base yieldings of ambition or corruption. 
§ " mislead "for " misdirect." || continually. 

IT all history and experience in different ages and nations has proved that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. 
** guard. ff and second. 



APPENDIX. 205 

ought to be to have as little political connection with them as pos- 
sible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be 
fulfilled with circumspection, indeed, but with perfect good faith; 
here* let it stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which have none or a very 
remote relation to us. Hence she must be involved in frequent con- 
tests, the causes of which will be essentially foreign to us. Hence, 
therefore, it must necessarily be unwise on our part to implicate 
ourselves by an artificial connection in the ordinary vicissitudes of 
European politics — in the combination and collisions of her friend- 
ships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites us to a different course, 
and enables us to pursue it. If we remain a united people, under 
an efficient government, the period is not distant when we may defy 
material injury from external annoyance — when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we shall at any time 
resolve to observe, to be violated with caution — when it will be the 
interest of belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making 
acquisitions upon us, to be very careful how either forced us to 
throw our weight into the opposite scale — when we may choose 
peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall dictate. 

Why should we forego the advantages of so felicitous a situation ? 
Why quit our own ground to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by 
interweaving our destiny with any part of Europe, should we en- 
tangle our prosperity and peace in the nets of European ambition, 
rivalship, interest, or caprice ? 

Permanent alliance, intimate connection with any part of the 
foreign world, is to be avoided ; so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it ; for let me never be understood as patronizing infi- 
delity to pre-existing engagements. These must be observed in 
their true and genuine sense. f 



* but there. 

j But 'tis not necessary, nor will it be prudent, to extend them. 'Tis our true policy, 



206 APPENDIX. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse, and commerce with all nations, are 
recommended by justice, humanity, and interest. But even our 
commercial policy should hold an equal hand, neither seeking nor 
granting exclusive favors or preferences — consulting the natural 
course of things — diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the 
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing — establishing with powers 
so disposed* temporaryf rules of intercourse, the best that present 
circumstances and mutual opinion of interest will permit, but tem- 
porary ; and liable to be abandoned or varied, as time, experience, 
and future circumstances may dictate — remembering! that it is folly 
in one nation to expect disinterested favor in another — that to 
accept§ is to part with a portion of its independence, and that it 
may find itself in the condition of having given equivalents for 
nominal favors, and of being reproached with ingratitude in the 
bargain. There can be no greater error in national policy than to 
desire, expect, or calculate upon real favors. 'Tis an illusion that 
experience must cure, that a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and 
affectionate friend — counsels suggested by laborious reflection, and 
matured by a various experience, I dare not hope that they will 
make the strong and lasting impressions I wish — that they will con- 
trol the current of the passions or prevent our nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of all nations. 

But|| if they may even produce partial benefit, some occasional 
good . . . that they sometimes recur to moderate the violence of 
party spirit — to warn against the evils of foreign intrigue — to guard 



as a general principle, to avoid permanent or dlose alliances. Taking care always to 
keep ourselves by suitable establishments in a respectably defensive position, we may 
safely trust to occasional alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

* In order to give to trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and 
enable the government to support them. 

"j" and conventional. J always. 

§ any thing under that character. jj I may flatter myself. 



APPENDIX. 207 

against the impositions of pretended patriotism — the having offered 
them, must always afford me a precious consolation. 

How far in the execution of my present office I have been guided 
by the principles which have been recommended,* the public records 
and the external evidences of my conduct must witness. My con- 
science assures me that I have at least believed myself to be guided 
by them. 

In reference to the present war of Europe, my proclamation of 
the 22d of April, 1793, is the key to my plan, sanctioned by your 
approving voice, and that of your Representatives in Congress — 
the spirit of that measure has continually governed me — uninflu- 
enced and unawed by the attempts of any of the warring powers, 
their agents, or partisans, to deter or divert from it. 

After deliberate consideration, and the best lights I could obtain 
[and from men who did not agree in their views of the origin, pro- 
gress, and nature of that war], I was satisfied that our country, 
under all the circumstances of the case, had a right and was bound 
in propriety and interest to take a neutral position. And having 
taken it, I determined asf should depend on me to maintain it 
steadily and firmly.J 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am 
unconscious of intentional error — I am yet too sensible of my own 
deficiencies, not to think it possible§ that I have committed many 
errors — [I deprecate the evils to which they may tend] — and fer- 
vently implore the Almighty to avert or mitigate them. I shall 
carry with me, nevertheless, the hope that my motives will continue 
to be viewed by my country with indulgence, and that after forty- 
five years of my life, devoted with an upright zeal to the public 



* " inculcated " for " recommended." f as far as. 

J Here a large space is found in the draught, evidently left for the insertion of other 
matter. 

§ " probable " for " possible." 



208 APPENDIX. 

service, the faults of inadequate abilities will be consigned to obli- 
vion, as myself must soon be, to the mansions of rest. 

[Neither ambition nor interest has been the impelling cause of my 
actions. I never designedly misused any power confided to me. 
The fortune with which I came into office, is not bettered otherwise 
than by that improvement in the value of property which the 
natural progress and peculiar prosperity of our country have pro- 
duced. I retire* with a pure heart, f with undefiled hands, and 
with ardent vows for the happiness of a country, the native soil of 
myself and progenitors for four generations.] 



* without cause for a blush. 

| with no alien sentiment to the ardor of those vows for the happiness of his coun- 
try, which is so natural to a citizen who sees in it. 



APPENDIX. 209 



No. IV. 

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE 

UNITED STATES. 

(The Writings of Washington, vol. xii, p. 214.) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens, — 

The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the 
executive government of the United States, being not far distant, 
and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed 
in designating the person, who is to be clothed with that important 
trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to. a 
more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now 
apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being consi- 
dered among the number of those, out of whom a choice is to be 
made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured, 
that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all 
the considerations appertaining to the relation, which binds a dutiful 
citizen to his country ; and that, in withdrawing the tender of 
service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced 
by no diminution of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of 
grateful respect for your past kindness ; but am supported by a full 
conviction that the step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which 
your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of 
inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what ap- 
peared to be your desire. I constantly hoped, that it would have 
been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives, which I 
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement, from 
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclina- 

14 



210 APPENDIX. 

tion to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the 
preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection 
on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign 
nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my con- 
fidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well as in- 
ternal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible 
with the sentiment of duty, or propriety ; and am persuaded, what- 
ever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present 
circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determi- 
nation to retire. 

The impressions, with which I first undertook the arduous trust, 
were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this 
trust, I will only say, that I have, with good intentions, contributed 
towards the organization and administration of the government the 
best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, 
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day 
the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. 
Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have given peculiar value to 
my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, 
that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, 
patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate 
the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to sus- 
pend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude, which I 
owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred 
upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has 
supported me ; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and per- 
severing, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have 
resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remem- 



APPENDIX. 211 

bered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, 
that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every 
direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes 
dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in 
which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit 
of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop 
of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were 
effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with 
me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Hea- 
ven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence ; that 
your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the free 
constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly 
maintained; that its administration in every department may be 
stamped with wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the 
people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made 
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this 
blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to 
the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is 
yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your wel- 
fare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of 
danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the 
present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend 
to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of 
much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear 
to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a People. 
These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only 
see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can 
possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I 
forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my 
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your 
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm 
the attachment. 



212 



APPENDIX, 



"^ The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is 
also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the 
edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity 
at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; 
of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy 
to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, 
much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in 
your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your 
political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external 
enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should 
properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to 
your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a 
cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it ; accustoming 
yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your 
political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with 
iealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a 
suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any 
portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
which now link together the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. 

■"Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has 
a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, 
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt 
the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from 
local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have 
the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You 
have in a common cause fought and triumphed together ; the Inde- 
pendence and Liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, 
and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address them- 
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those, which 
apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of 



APPENDIX. 213 

our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guard- 
ing and preserving the Union of the whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, pro- 
tected by the equal laws of a common government, finds, in the 
productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime 
and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing 
industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the 
agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce 
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the 
North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; and, while it 
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general 
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The 
East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the 
progressive improvement of interior communications by land and 
water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities 
which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West 
derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, 
and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of neces- 
sity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own 
productions to the wei'ght, influence, and the future maritime strength 
of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble com- 
munity of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the 
West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its 
own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion 
with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate 
and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail 
to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, 
greater resource, proportionably greater security from external 
danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign na- 
tions ; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from 
Union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, 
which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together 



A- 

214 APPENDIX. 

by the same governments, which their own rivalships alone would 
be sufficient to produce^ but which opposite foreign alliances, attach- 
ments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. } Hence, like- 
wise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military 
establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspi- 
cious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hos- 
tile to Kepublican Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union 
ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the 
love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every re- 
flecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union 
as a primary object of Patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether 
a common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let expe- 
rience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were 
criminal. We are authorized to hope, that a proper organization 
of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the 
respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. 
It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful 
and obvious motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, 
while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, 
there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who 
in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes, which may disturb our Union, it 
occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have 
been furnished for characterizing parties by Geographical discrimi- 
nations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence 
designing men may endeavor to excite a belief, that there is a r&al 
difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of 
party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepre- 
sent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield 
yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which 
spring from these misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien to 
each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affec- 
tion. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a 



APPENDIX. 215 

useful lesson on this head ; they have seen, in the negotiation by 
the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of 
the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, 
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were 
the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General 
Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests 
in regard to the Mississippi ; they have been witnesses to the for- 
mation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, 
which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to 
our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it 
not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages 
on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not hence- 
forth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever 
them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens ? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government 
for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, be- 
tween the parts can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevita- 
bly experience the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances 
in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, 
you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Con- 
stitution of Government better calculated than your former for an 
intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of your common 
concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, unin- 
fluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of 
its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your 
confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance 
with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by 
the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political 
systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Con- 
stitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time 
exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole 
people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power 



216 APPENDIX. 

and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes 
the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations 
and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real 
design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular delibera- 
tion and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of 
this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to 
organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force ; to 
put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a 
party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the com- 
munity ; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different par- 
ties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-con- 
certed and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of 
consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and 
modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above description 
may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the 
course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cun- 
ning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert 
the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
government ; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have 
lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your government, and the perma- 
nency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged 
authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of 
assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations, 
which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine 
what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which 
you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as 
necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of other 
human institutions ; that experience is the surest standard, by which 
to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country ; 



APPENDIX. 217 

that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and 
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of 
hypothesis and opinion ; and remember, especially, that, for the 
efficient management of your common interests, in a country so ex- 
tensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with 
the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will 
find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and 
adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, 
where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of 
faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits 
prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tran- 
quil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the 
state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geogra- 
phical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive 
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having 
its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists 
under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
trolled, or repressed ; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen 
in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened 
by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in dif- 
ferent ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a 
more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, 
which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 
and repose in the absolute power of an individual ; and sooner or 
later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more for- 
tunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of 
his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which 
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and 



218 APPENDIX. 

continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it 
the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the 
Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded 
jealousies and false alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against 
another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the 
door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated 
access to the government itself through the channels of party pas- 
sions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected 
to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful 
checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to 
keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is pro- 
bably true ; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism 
may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. 
But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, 
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. Prom their natural tendency, it 
is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salu- 
tary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the 
effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage 
it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to 
prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free 
country should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its adminis- 
tration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional 
spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to 
encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to con- 
solidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to cre- 
ate, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which 
predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the 
truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the 
exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into dif- 



APPENDIX. 219 

ferent depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public 
Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experi- 
ments ancient and modern ; some of them in our country and under 
our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to insti- 
tute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or 
modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, 
let it be corrected by an amendment, in the way which the constitu- 
tion designates. But let there be no change by usurpation ; for, 
though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is 
the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. 
The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil 
any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political pros- 
perity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to 
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props 
of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally 
with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A vo- 
lume could not trace all their connexions with private and public 
felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, 
for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert 
the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of 
Justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that 
morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be 
conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar 
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that 
national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with 
more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that 
is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to 
shake the foundation of the fabric ? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the struc- 



220 APPENDIX. 

ture of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish 
public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly 
as possible ; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but 
remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger 
frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding 
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions 
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge 
the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not unge- 
nerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your re- 
presentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should coope- 
rate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is 
essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the 
payment of debts there must be Revenue ; that to have Revenue 
there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised, which are not 
more or less inconvenient and unpleasant ; that the intrinsic embar- 
rassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which 
is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a 
candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, 
and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining 
revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations ; cultivate 
peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this 
conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? 
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, 
a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel 
example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and bene- 
volence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, 
the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advan- 
tages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, 
that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation 
with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 



APPENDIX. 221 

every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it ren- 
dered impossible by its vices ? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than 
that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, 
and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded ; and that, 
in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be 
cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a 
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient 
to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one 
nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and 
injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty 
and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute 
occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody 
contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, some- 
times impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calcula- 
tions of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the 
national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would 
reject ; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subser- 
vient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other 
sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes per- 
haps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim. 

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another 
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, 
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases 
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the 
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the 
quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or 
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of 
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation 
making the concessions ; by unnecessarily parting with what ought 
to have been retained ; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a dis- 
position to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are 
withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, 



222 APPENDIX. 

(who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray 
or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, some- 
times even with popularity ; gilding, with the appearances of a vir- 
tuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public 
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish com- 
pliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attach- 
ments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and inde- 
pendent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead 
public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils ! Such an 
attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, 
dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to 
believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to 
be constantly awake ; since history and experience prove, that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. 
But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial ; else it becomes 
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a de- 
fence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and 
excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see 
danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts 
of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the in- 
trigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious ; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the 
people, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, 
in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little 
political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here 
let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or 
a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent 
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our 



APPENDIX. 223 

concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate 
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her poli- 
tics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships 
or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pur- 
sue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient 
government, the period is not far off, when we may defy material 
injury from external annoyance ; when we may take such an atti- 
tude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, 
to be scrupulously respected ; when belligerent nations, under the 
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard 
the giving us provocation ; when we may choose peace or war, as 
our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit 
our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by interweaving our 
destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humor, or caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with \\ 
any portion of the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood as capable of patron- 
izing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less 
applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always 
the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unneces- 
sary and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, 
on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary .. 
alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended 
by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand ; neither seeking nor grant- 
ing exclusive favors or preferences ; consulting the natural course 
of things ; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams 



224 APPENDIX. 

of commerce, but forcing nothing ; establishing, with powers so dis- 
posed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of 
our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, con- 
ventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances 
and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be 
from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circum- 
stances shall dictate ; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in 
one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it 
must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may 
accept under that character ; that, by such acceptance, it may place 
itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. 
There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real 
favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience 
must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and 
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish ; that they will control the usual 
current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the 
course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if 
I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some par- 
tial benefit, some occasional good ; that they may now and then 
recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mis- 
chiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pre- 
tended patriotism ; this hope will be a full recompense for the soli- 
citude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided 
by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and 
other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at 
least believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation 
of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my Plan. Sanctioned 
by your approving voice, and by that of your Representatives in 



APPENDIX. 225 

both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually 
governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me 
from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I 
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the 
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in 
duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I 
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with 
moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations, which respect the right to hold this conduct, 
it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe, 
that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so 
far from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, has been 
virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without 
any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity 
impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to main- 
tain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other 
nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best 
be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a 
predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our coun- 
try to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress 
without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency, 
which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its 
own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am 
unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of 
my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many 
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty 
to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also 
carry with me the hope, that my Country will never cease to view 
them with indulgence ; and that, after forty-five years of my life 
dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompe- 

15 



226 APPENDIX. 

tent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be 
to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated 
by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who 
views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several 
generations ; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in 
which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoy- 
ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign 
influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite 
object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual 
cares, labors, and dangers. 

George Washington. 

United States, September 17th, 1796. 



APPENDIX. 227 



No. V. 

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

(From Autograph Copy.) 

[Memorandum. — With the cancelled passages restored, and 
printed at the foot of. the pages, under the direction of James 
Lenox, Esq., the proprietor of the autograph. The marginal 
pages are those of the fifth volume of Mr. Irving' s Life of Wash- 
ington. The references at the end of the restored passages, at the 
foot of the pages, are to the pages of this Appendix.] 

*Friends and Fellow-Citizens: [*356] 

The period for a new election of a. Citizen, to administer the 
Executive Government of the United States, being not far distant, 
and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be em- 
ployed in designating the person, who is to be clothed with that 
important trust [ * ], it appears to me proper, especially as it may 
conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I 
should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline 
being considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice 
is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured, 
that this resolution has not been taken, without a strict regard to 
all the considerations appertaining to the relation, which binds a 
dutiful citizen to his country — and that, in withdrawing the tender 
of service which silence in my situation might imply, I am influ- 
enced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency 
of grateful respect for your past kindness ; but [am supported by]f 
a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 

* for another term f act under 



228 APPENDIX. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to 
which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform 
sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference 
for what appeared to be your desire. — I constantly hoped, that it 
would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with 
motives, which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to 
that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. — The 
strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, 
*had even led to the preparation of an address to declare 
it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and 
critical posture of our affairs with foreign Nations, and the unani- 
mous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to 
abandon the idea. — 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as in- 
ternal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible 
with the sentiment of duty, or propriety ; and [am persuaded]* 
whatever partiality [may be retained]f for my services, [that]J in 
the present circumstances of our country [you] will not disapprove 
my determination to retire. 

The impressions [with]§ which, I first [undertook]|| the arduous 
trust, were explained on the proper occasion. — In the discharge of 
this trust, I will only say, that I have, with good intentions, con- 
tributed [towards]^ the organization and administration of the 
government, the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment 
was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of 
my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, [perhaps] still more 
in the eyes of others, has [strengthened]** the motives to diffidence 
of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admo- 
nishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as neces- 
sary to me as it will be welcome. — Satisfied that if any circumstances 
have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I 



* that f an y portion of you may yet retain J even they 

§ under || accepted IT to ** not lessened 



APPENDIX. 229 

have the consolation to believe, that while choice and prudence 
invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid 

*In looking forward to the moment, which is [intended] 
to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do 
not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment [of]f that debt 
of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, — for the many 
honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for the stedfast confi- 
dence with which it has supported me ; and for the opportunities I 
have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by 
services faithful and persevering, though [in usefulness unequal]! to 
my zeal. — If benefits have resulted to our country from these ser- 
vices, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an in- 
structive example in our annals, that, [ § ] under circumstances in 
which the Passions agitated in every direction were liable to [mis- 
lead], || amidst appearances sometimes dubious, — vicissitudes of for- 
tune often discouraging, — in situations in which not unfrequently 
want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism [the con- 
stancy of your support] was the essential prop of the efforts and 
Mil guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Pro- 
foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to the 
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows [ ** ] that Heaven 
may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence — that 



* May I also have that of knowing in my retreat, that the involuntary errors, I have 
probably committed, have been the sources of no serious or lasting mischief to our 
country. I may then expect to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, 
in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free 
government; the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, I trust, of our 
mutual cares, dangers, and labours. [Supra, p. 190.] 

In the margin opposite this paragraph is the following note in Washington's Auto- 
graph also erased, " obliterated to avoid the imputation of affected modesty." 

■J" demanded by J unequal in usefulness 

§ the constancy of your support || wander and fluctuate 

IF the , ** the only return I can henceforth make. 



230 APPENDIX. 

your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual — that the free 
constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly 
maintained — that its administration in every department may be 
stamped with wisdom and virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of the 
people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made 
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this 
blessing as will acquire to them the glory [ * ] of recommending it 
to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is 
yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. — But a solicitude for your wel- 
fare which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehen- 
sion *of danger, natural to that solicitude, [urge me, on an 
occasion like the present, to offer]f to your solemn contemplation, 
and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments ; which 
are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observa- 
tion, [ J ] and which appear to me all important to the permanency 
of your felicity as a people. — These will be offered to you with the 
more freedom as you can only see in them, the disinterested warn- 
ings of a departing friend, who can [possibly] have no personal 
motive to bias his counsels. — [Nor can I forget, as an encourage- 
ment to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former 
and not dissimilar occasion.] 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your 
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm 
the attachment. 

The Unity of Government which constitutes you one people, is 
also now dear to you. — It is justly so ; — for it is a main Pillar in 
the Edifice of your real independence ; [the support] of your tran- 
quillity at home ; your peace abroad ; of your safety ; [ § ] of your 



* or satisfaction 

■f encouraged by the remembrance of your indulgent reception of my sentiments on 
an occasion not dissimilar to the present, urge me to offer 

£ and experience § in every relation 



APPENDIX. 231 

prosperity [ * ] ; of that very Liberty which you so highly prize. — 
But as it is easy to foresee, that from [different]! causes, and from 
different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices em- 
ployed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ; — as 
this is the point in your [political] fortress against which the batte- 
ries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and 
actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of 
infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense 
value of your national Union to your collective and individual hap- 
piness ; — that you should cherishj a cordial, habitual, and immove- 
able attachment [to it, accustoming yourselves to think and speak 
of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; 
watching for *its preservation with jealous anxiety; dis- 
countenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that 
it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon 
the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our 
Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link 
together the various parts. ]§ — 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. — 
Citizens [by birth or choice of a common country], || that country 
has a right to concentrate your affections. — The name of American, 
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt 
the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation [ % ] derived 
from local discriminations. — With slight shades of difference, you 
have the same Religion, Manners, Habits, and political Principles. — 

* in every shape j" various J towards it 

§ that you should accustom yourselves to reverence it as the Palladium of your po- 
litical safety and prosperity, adapting constantly your words and actions to that 
momentous idea; that you should watch for its preservation with jealous anxiety, 
discountenance whatever may suggest a suspicion that it can in any event be aban- 
doned ; and frown upon the first dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of 
our Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the 
several parts. — [Svpra, p. 192.] 

|| of a common country by birth or choice IF to be 



232 APPENDIX. 

You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together. — The 
Independence and Liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, 
and joint efforts — of common dangers, sufferings and successes. — 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address them- 
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which 
apply more immediately to your Interest. — Here every portion of 
our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guard- 
ing and preserving the Union of the whole. 

The North in an [unrestrained]* intercourse with the South, pro- 
tected by the equal Laws of a common government, finds in the 
productions of the latter [ f ] great additional resources of maritime 
and commercial enterprise — and precious materials of manufacturing 

industrv-' — The South in the same intercourse, benefiting 
[*361] J . 

by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and 

its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the 
seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; — 
and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase 
the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the 
protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally 
adapted. — The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already 
finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communica- 
tions, by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent 
for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at 
home. — The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its 
growth and comfort, — and what is perhaps of still greater conse- 
quence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispen- 
sable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and 
the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, 
directed by an indissoluble community of interest, as one Nation, 
[Any other]J tenure by which the West can hold this essential ad- 
vantage, [whether derived]§ from its own separate strength, or from 



* unfettered t many of the peculiar J The § either 



APPENDIX. 233 

an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign Power, must 
be intrinsically precarious. [ * ] 

[ f ] While [then] every part of our Country thus [feels]{ an im- 
mediate and particular interest in Union, all the parts§ [combined 
cannot fail to find] in the united mass of means and efforts [ || ] 
greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security 
from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by 
foreign Nations ; and, [what is]Tf of inestimable value ! they must 
derive from Union an exemption from those broils and wars between 
themselves which [so frequently]** afflict neighbouring countries, 

not tied together bv *the same government ; which their 

6 J 8 [*362] 

own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce ; but 

which opposite foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues would 
stimulate and embitter. — Hence likewise they will avoid the neces- 
sity of those overgrown Military establishments, which under any 
form of Government are inauspicious to liberty, and which [are to 
be regarded]ff as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty : In 
this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main 
prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear 
to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to [every]|| 
reflecting and virtuous mind, — [and]§§ exhibit the continuance of 
the Union as a primary object of Patriotic desire. — Is there a 
doubt, whether a common government can embrace so large a 
sphere ? — Let experience solve it. — To listen to mere speculation in 
such a case were criminal. — [We are authorised] |||| to hope that a 



* liable every moment to be disturbed by the fluctuating combinations of the primary 
interests of Europe, which must be expected to regulate the conduct of the Nations of 
which it is composed. — [Supra, p. 193.] 

t And X finds $ of il 

|| cannot fail to find fl which is an advantage ** inevitably 

ff there is reason to regard JJ any §§ they 
llll Tis natural 



234 APPENDIX. 

proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of 
governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy 
issue to the experiment. 'Tis well worth a fair and full experi- 
ment. [ * ] With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, 
[affectingjf all parts of our country [J], while experience shall 
not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be 
[reason]§ to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter 
may endeavour to weaken its bands. [ || ] — 

*In contemplating the causes which may disturb our 

Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that [any 

ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by]lf 

G-eograjohical discriminations — Northern and Southern — Atlantic 



* It may not impossibly be found, that the spirit of party, the machinations of foreign 
powers, the corruption and ambition of individual citizens are more formidable adver- 
saries to the Unity of our Empire than any inherent difficulties in the scheme. Against 
these the mounds of national opinion, national sympathy and national jealousy ought to 
be raised. — [Supra, p. 194.] 

f as J have § cause in the effect itself 

|| Besides the more serious causes already hinted as threatening our Union, there is 
one less dangerous, but sufficiently dangerous to make it prudent to be upon our 
guard against it. I allude to the petulance of party differences of opinion. It is not 
uncommon to hear the irritations which these excite vent themselves in declarations 
that the different parts of the United States are ill affected to each other, in menaces 
that the Union will be dissolved by this or that measure. Intimations like these are as 
indiscreet as they are intemperate. Though frequently made with levity and without 
any really evil intention, they have a tendency to produce the consequence which they 
indicate. They teach the minds of men to consider the Union as precarious ; — as an 
object to which they ought not to attach their hopes and fortunes ; — and thus chill the 
sentiment in its favour. By alarming the pride of those to whom they are addressed, 
they set ingenuity at work to depreciate the value of the thing, and to discover reasons 
of indifference towards it. This is not wise. — It will be much wiser to habituate our- 
selves to reverence the Union as the palladium of our national happiness; to accommo- 
date constantly our words and actions to that idea, and to discountenance whatever may 
suggest a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned. (In the margin opposite 
this paragraph are the words, "Not important enough.") — [Supra, p. 194.] 

IT our parties for some time past have been too much characterized by 



APPENDIX. 235 

and Western; [whence designing men may endeavour to excite a 
belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views.]* 
One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within par- 
ticular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other 
districts. — You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jea- 
lousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresenta- 
tions ; — They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to 
be bound together by fraternal affection. — The. inhabitants of our 
"Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this [head.]f — 
They have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the 

unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the Treaty with _ 

. . [*364] 

*Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, 

throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were 
the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General 
Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests 
in regard to the Mississippi. — They have been witnesses to the 
formation of two Treaties, that with G. Britain, and that with Spain, 
which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to 
our foreign Relations towards confirming their prosperity. — Will it 
not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages 
on the Union by which they were procured ? — Will they not hence- 
forth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever 
them from their Brethren, and connect them with Aliens ? — 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for 



* These discriminations, the mere contrivance of the spirit of Party, (always 

dexterous to seize every handle by which the passions can be wielded, and too skilful 
not to turn to account the sympathy of neighbourhood,) have furnished an argument 
against the Union as evidence of a real difference of local interests and views ; and 
serve to hazard it by organizing larger districts of country, under the leaders of con- 
tending factions; whose rivalships, prejudices and schemes of ambition, rather than the 
true interests of the Country, will direct the use of their influence. If it be possible to 
correct this poison in the habit of our body politic, it is worthy the endeavours of the 
moderate and the good to effect it. — [Supra, p. 195.] 

•j- subject 



236 APPENDIX. 

the whole is indispensable. — No alliances however strict between the 
parts can be an adequate substitute. — They must inevitably expe- 
rience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all 
times have experienced. — Sensible of this momentous truth, you 
have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitu- 
tion of Government, better calculated than your former for an 
intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of your common 
concerns. — This government, the offspring of our own choice unin- 
fluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of 
its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your 
confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance 
with its Laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by 
the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. — The basis of our political 
systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Con- 
stitutions of Government. — But the Constitution which at any time 
exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole 
People, is sacredly obligatory upon all. — The very idea of the power 
and the right of the People to establish Government, presupposes 
the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. 

*A11 obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all com- 
[*365] 

binations and associations, under whatever plausible cha- 
racter with [the real] design to direct, controul, counteract, or awe 
the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, 
are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal ten- 
dency. — They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and 
extraordinary force — to put, [ * ] in the place of the delegated will 
of the NatioD, the will of a party ; — often a small but artful and 
enterprizing minority of the community ; — and, according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public adminis- 



APPENDIX. 237 

tra-tion the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of 
faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans 
digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. — 
However combinations or associations of the above description may 
now and then answer popular ends, [ * ] they are likely, in the 
course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cun- 
ning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert 
the Power of the People and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
Government ; destroying afterwards the very engines which have 
lifted them to unjust dominion. — 

Towards the preservation of your Government, and the perma- 
nency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged 
authority, but also that you resist with care [the]f spirit of innova- 
tion upon its principles however specious the pretexts. — One method 
of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, altera- 
tions which will impair the energy of the system, [and thus to]| 
undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. — In all the changes 
to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at 
least as necessary to fix the true character of Governments, as of 
other human institutions — that experience is the surest standard, 
by which to test the real tendency of the existing Constitution of a 
Country — that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypo- 
thesis and opinion exposes *to perpetual change, from the 
endless variety of hypothesis and opinion : — and remember, 
especially, that for the efficient management of your common inte- 
rests, in a country so extensive as ours, a Government of as much 
vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of Liberty is indis- 
pensable, — Liberty itself will find in such a Government, with powers 
properly distributed and adjusted, its surest Guardian. — [It is indeed 
little else than a name, where the Government is too feeble to with- 



* and purposes fa J to 



238 



APPENDIX. 



stand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the So- 
ciety within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all 
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and 
property.]* 

I have already intimated to you the danger of Parties in the 
State, with particular reference to the founding of them on Geogra- 
phical discriminations. — Let me now take a more comprehensive 
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the Spirit of Party, generally. 

This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from [our]f nature, 

having its root in the strongest passions of the [human] mind. — It 

exists under different shapes in all Governments, more or less stifled, 

controuled or repressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen 

in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. — [ J ] 

r^r.^hr-i *The alternate domination of one faction over another, 
L*3o7] 

sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissen- 



* Owing to you as I do a frank and free disclosure of my heart, I shall not conceal 
from you the belief 1 entertain, that your Government as at present constituted is far 
more likely to prove too feeble than too powerful. — [Supra, p. 198.] 

t human 

J In Republics of narrow extent, it is not difficult for those who at any time hold the 
reins of Power, and command the ordinary public favor, to overturn the established 
[constitution]* in favor of their own aggrandizement. — The same thing may likewise 
be too often accomplished in such Republics, by partial combinations of men, who 
though not in office, from birth, riches, or other sources of distinction, have extraordi- 
nary influence and numerous [adherents.]f — By debauching the Military force, by sur- 
prising some commanding citadel, or by some other sudden aud unforeseen movement 
the fate of the Republic is decided. — But in Republics of large extent, usurpation can 
scarcely make its way through these avenues. — The powers and opportunities of re- 
sistance of a wide extended and numerous nation, defy the successful efforts of the 
ordinary Military force, or of any collections which wealth and patronage may call to 
their aid. — In such Republics, it is safe to assert, that the conflicts of popular factions 
are the chief, if not the only inlets, of usurpation and Tyranny. — [Supra, p. 198.] 

* order f retainers 



APPENDIX. 239 

sion, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most 
horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. — But this leads at 
length to a more formal and permanent despotism. — The disorders 
and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to 
seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual : 
and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able 
or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the 
purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which 
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and 
continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it 
the interest 1 and the duty of a wise People to discourage and re- 
strain it. — 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the 
Public administration. — It agitates the community with ill-founded 
jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part 
against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. — It 
opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a 
facilitated access [to the Government itself through the channels of 
party passions. Thus, the policy and the will of one country, are 
subjected to the policy and will of another.]* 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful 
checks upon the Administration of the Government, and serve to 
keep alive the Spirit of Liberty. — This within certain limits is pro- 
bably true — and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism 
may look with indulgence, if not with favour, upon *the 
spirit of party. — But in those of the popular character, in 
Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. — 
From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose, — and there being 



* through the channels of party passions. It frequently subjects the policy of our 
own country to the policy of some foreign country, and even enslaves the will of our 
Government to the will of some foreign Government. — [Supra, p. 199.] 



240 APPENDIX. 

constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public 
opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. — A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, 
lest, [instead of warming, it should]* consume. — 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free 
country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its adminis- 
tration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional 
spheres ; avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department 
to encroach upon another. — The spirit of encroachment tends to 
consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, [ f ] whatever [the form of government, a real]J despotism. — 
A just estimate of that love of power, and [ § ] proneness to abuse 
it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us 
of the truth of this position. — The necessity of reciprocal checks in 
the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the 
Public Weal [against] || invasions by the others, has been evinced by 
experiments ancient and modern ; some of them in our country and 
under our own eyes. — To preserve them must be as necessary as to 
institute them. — If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or 
modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular 
wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the 
Constitution designates. — But let there be no change by usurpation ; 
for though this, in one instance may be the instrument of good, 
it is the [customary]Tf weapon by which free governments are de- 
stroyed. — The precedent [ ** ] must always greatly overbalance in 
permanent evil any partial or [transient]ff benefit which the 
use [ Xt ] can at an 7 tmie yield. — 

*Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable sup- 



* it should not only warm, but f under J forms a 

§ the || from IT usual and natural 

** of its use |f temporary JJ itself 



APPENDIX. 241 

ports. — In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who 
should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, 
these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. — The mere 
Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to 
cherish them. — A volume could not trace all their connections with 
private and public felicity. — Let it simply be asked where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of reli- 
gious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of in- 
vestigation in Courts of Justice ? And let us with caution indulge 
the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. — 
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on 
minds of peculiar structure — reason and experience both forbid us 
to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
principle. — 

'Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. — The rule indeed extends with more 
or less force to every species of Free Government. — Who that is a 
sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to 
shake the foundation of the fabric ? — 

[Promote then as an object of primary importance, institutions 
for the general diffusion of knowledge. — In proportion as the struc- 
ture of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened.] — * 

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish 



* Cultivate industry and frugality, as auxiliaries to good morals and sources of private 
and public prosperity. — Is there not room to regret that our propensity to expense 
exceeds our means for it? Is there not more luxury among us and more diffusively, 
than suits the actual stage of our national progress? Whatever may be the apology 
for luxury in a country, mature in the Arts which are its ministers, and the cause of 
national opulence — can it promote the advantage of a young country, almost wholly 
agricultural, in the infancy of the arts, and certainly not in the maturity of wealth? — 
[Supra, p. 201.] 

(Over this paragraph in the original a piece of paper is wafered, on which the pas- 
sage is written as printed in the text.) 

16 



242 APPENDIX. 

*public credit. — One method of preserving it is to use it as 
[sparingly]* as possible : — avoiding occasions of expense 
by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disburse- 
ments to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater dis- 
bursements to repel it — avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, 
not only by [shunning]f occasions of expense, but by vigorous ex- 
ertions in time of Peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable 
wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon poste- 
rity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution 
of these maxims belongs to your Representatives, but it is neces- 
sary that public opinion should [co-operate.];); — To facilitate to them 
the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should prac- 
tically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must 
be Revenue — that to have Revenue there must be taxes — that no 
taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and 
unpleasant — that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the 
selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of diffi- 
culties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of 
the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of 
acquiescence in the measures for obtaining Revenue which the 
public exigencies may at any time dictate. — 

Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. [§] Culti- 
vate peace and harmony with all.— Religion and morality enjoin 
this conduct ; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin 
it ? — It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant 
period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too 
novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and 
benevolence. — Who can doubt that in the course of time and things, 
the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advan- 



* little t avoiding % coincide 

§ and cultivate peace and harmony with all, for in public as well as in private 

transactions, I am persuaded that honesty will always be found to be the best policy. — 

[Supra, p. 202.] 



APPENDIX. 243 

tages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be 
that Providence has not connected *the permanent felicity 
of a Nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is 
recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. — 
Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its vices ? 

In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than 
that [permanent, inveterate]* antipathies against particular nations 
and passionate attachments for others should be excluded ; and that 
in place of them just and amicable feelings towards all should be 
cultivated. — The Nation, which indulges towards another [an]f 
habitual hatred or [an]! habitual fondness, is in some degree a 
slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of 
which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interests. — 
Antipathy in one Nation against another [ § ] disposes each more 
readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of 
umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or 
trifling occasions of dispute occur. — Hence frequent collisions, ob- 
stinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. — The Nation prompted by 
ill-will and resentment sometimes impels to War the Government, 
contrary to [the best]|| calculations of policy. The Government 
sometimes participates in the [national] propensity, and adopts 
through passion what reason would reject; — at other times, it makes 
the animosity of the Nation subservient to projects of hostility 
instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious 
motives. — The peace often, sometimes perhaps the Liberty, of 
Nations, has been the victim. — 

So likewise a passionate attachment of one Nation for another 
produces a variety of evils. — Sympathy for the favourite nation, 
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases 
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into, one [ If ] 



* rooted fa J a 

§ begets of course a similar sentiment in that other, — [Supra, p. 203.] 

|| its own IT another 



244 APPENDIX. 

the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation 
in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement 
or justification : It leads also to concessions to the favourite 
*Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
to injure the Nation making the concessions ; [ * ] by unnecessarily 
parting with what ought to have been retained,! and by exciting' 
jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from 
whom equal privileges are withheld ; and it gives to ambitious, cor- 
rupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favourite 
Nation) facility to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own 
country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity : — gilding 
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commend- 
able deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, 
the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption or infatua- 
tion. — 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such at- 
tachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and 
independent patriot. — How many opportunities do they afford to 
tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to 
mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils ! 
Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and power- 
ful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, [I conjure you 
to] believe me, [fellow citizens],! the jealousy of a free people 
ought to be [constantly]§ awake, since history and experience 
prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Re- 
publican Government. — But that jealousy to be useful must be 
impartial ; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to 
be avoided, instead of a defence against it. — Excessive partiality 
for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another, cause those 
whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil 



lstly f 2dly J roy friends, § incessantly 



APPENDIX. 245 

and even second the arts of influence on the other. — Real Patriots, 



who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become 
suspected and odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause 
and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. — 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations 
*is, [in extending our commercial relations], to have with rjkQh7Q -. 
them as little Political connection as possible. — So far as 
we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with [ * ] 
perfect good faith. — Here let us stop. — 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or 
a very remote relation. — Hence she must be engaged in frequent 
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 
cerns. — Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate our- 
selves by [ f ] artificial [ties]J in the ordinary vicissitudes of her 
politics, [or]§ the ordinary combinations and collisions of her 
friendships, or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to 
pursue a different course. — If we remain one people, under an 
efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy 
material injury from external annoyance ; when we may take such 
an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve 
[upon] 1 1 to be scrupulously respected. — When [If] belligerent na- 
tions, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will 
[not] lightly hazard the giving us provocation [ ** ] ; when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest guided by [ ft ] justice 
shall counsel. — 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? — Why 
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? — Why, by interweav- 
ing our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace 



* circumspection indeed, but with f an 

J connection § in || to observe IT neither of two 

** to throw our weight into the opposite scale; "ft our 



246 APPENDIX. 

and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humour, or caprice ? — 

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances [*] 
with any portion of the foreign world ; — so far, I mean, as we are 
now at liberty to do it — for let me not be understood as capable 
of patronizing infidelity to [existing]f engagements, ([I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs]J, that 
*honesty is [always] the best policy). — [I repeat it there- 
fore, let those engagements]§ be observed in their genuine 
sense. — But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to 
extend them. — 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, 
on a respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to [tempo- 
rary]|| alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended 
by policy, humanity and interest. — But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand : — neither seeking nor 
granting exclusive favours or preferences ; — consulting the natural 
course of things ; — diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the 
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; ^-establishing with 
Powers so disposed — in order to give to trade a stable course, to 
define the rights of our Merchants and to enable the Government 
to support them — conventional rules of intercourse, the best that 
present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit ; but tempo- 
rary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly keeping in 
view, that 'tis folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors 
[from]Tf another, — that it must pay with a portion of its indepen- 
dence for whatever it may accept under that character — that by 
such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having 



* intimate connections t pre-existinj 

J for I hold it to be as true in public as in private transactions, 

§ those must || occasional IT at 



APPENDIX. 247 

given equivalents for nominal favours and jet of being reproached 
with ingratitude for not giving more. — There can be no greater 
error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to 
Nation. — 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just 
pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my Countrymen, these counsels of an old and 
affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression, I could wish, — that they will controul the usual 
current of the passions or prevent our Nation from running the 
course which has hitherto marked the destiny of Nations. — But if 
I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of 
*some partial benefit ; some occasional good ; that they 
may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to 
warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the 
impostures of pretended patriotism, this hope will be a full recom- 
pense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been 
dictated. — 

How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided 
by the principles which have been delineated, the public Records 
and other evidences of my conduct must witness to You, and to the 
World. — To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I 
have at least believed myself to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting War in Europe, my Proclama- 
tion of the 22d of April 1793 is the index to my plan. — Sanctioned 
by your approving voice and by that of Your Representatives in 
both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually 
governed me : — uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me 
from it. 

After deliberate examination with the aid of the best lights I 
could obtain, [ * ] I was well satisfied that our country, under all the 



* (and from men disagreeing in their impressions of the origin, progress, and nature 
of that war,) — [Supra, p. 207.] 



248 APPENDIX. 

circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in 
duty and interest, to take a Neutral position. — Having taken it, I 
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with 
moderation, perseverance, and firmness. — 

[The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, 
[it is not necessary]* on this occasion [to detail.] I will only ob- 
serve, that according to my understanding of the matter, that right, 
so far from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all. — ]f 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without 
^anything more, from the obligation which justice and hu- 
manity impose on every Nation, in cases in which it is free 
to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and Amity 
towards other Nations. — 

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct, will best 

be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a 

predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our 
country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to pro- 
gress without interruption to that degree of strength and consist- 
ency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command 
of its own fortunes. 



* some of them of a delicate nature would be improperly the subject of explanation. 

"f" The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, some of them of a 
delicate nature, would be improperly the subject of explanation on this occasion. I 
will barely observe that according to my understanding of the matter, that right so far 
from being denied by any belligerent Power, has been virtually admitted by all. — 

This paragraph is then erased from the word "conduct," and the following sentence 
interlined, " would be improperly the subject of particular discussion on this occasion. 
I will barely observe that to me they appear to be warranted by well-established prin- 
ciples of the Laws of Nations as applicable to the nature of our alliance with France 
in connection with the circumstances of the War, and the relative situation of the 
contending Parties." 

A piece of paper is afterwards wafered over both, on which the paragraph as it 
stands in the text is written, and on the margin is the following note : " This is the first 
draft, and it is questionable which of the two is to be preferred." 



APPENDIX. 249 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am 

unconscious of intentional error — I am nevertheless too sensible of 

my defects not to think it probable that I [may] have committed 

many errors. — [Whatever they may be I]* fervently beseech the 

Almighty to avert or mitigate [the evils to which they may tend.Jf 

— I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never 

cease to view them with indulgence ; and that after forty-five years 

of my life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults 

of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself 

must soon be to the mansions of rest. [ J ] 

*Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 

J © e > [*377] 

actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so 

natural to a man, who views in it the native soil of himself and 

his progenitors for [several] § generations ; — I anticipate with 

pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to 

realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the 

midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good Laws 

under a free Government, — the ever favourite object of my heart, 



* I deprecate the evils to which they may tend, and — [Supra, p. 207.] 

t them 

J May I without the charge of ostentation add, that neither ambition nor interest has 
been the impelling cause of my actions — that I have never designedly misused any 
power confided to me nor hesitated to use one, where I thought it could redound to 
your benefit? May I without the appearance of affectation say, that the fortune with 
which I came into office is not bettered otherwise than by the improvement in the 
value of property which the quick progress and uncommon prosperity of our country 
have produced ? May I still further add without breach of delicacy, that I shall retire 
without cause for a blush, with no sentiments alien to the force of those vows for the 
happiness of his country so natural to a citizen who sees in it the native soil of his 
progenitors and himself for four generations ? — [Supra, p. 208.] 

On the margin opposite this paragraph is the following note : " This paragraph may 
have the appearance of self-distrust and mere vanity." 

§ four 

17 



250 APPENDIX. 

and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours, 
and dangers. [ * ] — [Supra, p. 190.] 

G^ Washington. 

United States,) 

1796. 



17 th September 



: 



* The paragraph beginning with the words, " May I without the charge of ostentation 
add," having been struck out, the following note is written on the margin of that which 
is inserted in its place in the text : — " Continuation of the paragraph preceding the last 
ending with the word ' rest.' " 



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